This Ain't Love (It's Clear To See)
by callistawolf
Summary: He was tired and lonely, and she was looking at him like she wanted to eat him up and dammit, it felt good. It didn't have to be a problem. He was a big boy now and she seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders. This could work, he promised himself. But then, why did that feel so much like lying?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I've taken on a new fic and it should be fairly long. I have the whole plot outlined, and I'm several chapters ahead of where I'm posting. I have some great ideas for this. For now, its going to follow canon pretty strictly. Which means that one night stand(s) or not, the events of the first part of season one will remain unchanged in large part. Things will start shifting in the back half of season one, however, when Felicity joins the team. And I have some great ideas how the events of the beginning of the story will ultimate effect how the rest of the season plays out. Come along with me on this ride!**

It was just another Wednesday afternoon and Felicity Smoak was hard at work in her little corner of the IT department in Queen Consolidated. She'd been at this job since her graduation from MIT, a little over three years now. She'd started off as a regular intern but now she had her very own desk and caseload and she loved her job. _Loved_ it.

The way she saw it, her job was unraveling mysteries. She hated mysteries; she couldn't rest until she solved them. As such, she didn't mind the long hours she put in at her 15th floor cubicle. Felicity didn't have much of a social life anyhow. All her friends from college were still on the east coast and everyone she'd known growing up was down in Vegas and she hadn't really kept in touch with any of them anyhow.

She was cranking through her to-do pile, a pen in her mouth as she considered her next project when the sound of a throat being cleared caused her to swivel around in her chair. "Felicity Smoak?" Her mouth fell open as she yanked the pen out, her eyes going wide. There, right before her desk, stood none other than Oliver Queen.

Yes, _Queen_. As in Queen Consolidated. His family owned the whole company and while Felicity might not be a social butterfly, you'd have to be living underneath a rock not to have heard about Oliver Queen's rescue from a deserted island. It was all over the news these days and all anyone at QC ever seemed to talk about anymore in the break room.

Oliver and his father had been presumed dead for almost two years by the time she'd come to Queen Consolidated. Stories of the younger Queen's antics had been office legend; some of the women on the other floors had even been "victim" to his charms on more than one occasion. Felicity had never been anything more than mildly curious about him herself. He was definitely not the sort to have ever run in her social circle and she was certain she was the last sort of girl he'd ever notice. But in the last three years, Felicity had grown fond of Walter Steele, who had taken over CEO of Queen Consolidated and since Walter had married Oliver's mother, she'd become a little interested in his family life and had been happy for them all when Oliver had been miraculously found by a Chinese fishing vessel.

Now here he stood, smiling genially down at her, a battered looking laptop clutched in his hand. "Hi. I'm Oliver Queen," he said, still smiling that bland, expressionless smile he'd come in with. The way he introduced himself told her that he knew she knew who he was. He was hoping to dazzle her. The fact that she _was_ dazzled aside, she didn't like that he expected her to act like an empty headed ninny.

"Of course," she said, trying to sound disaffected. "I know who you are, you're- Mr. Queen." She laughed a little breathlessly, fidgeting in her seat even as she chastised herself for most definitely sounding like an empty headed ninny.

Good lord, he was _gorgeous_. The news clips of him hardly did him justice. He was _tall_ and even though he wore a grey sweater, she could tell his shoulders were wide beneath it. He commanded the room, sucking all the air out and so all she could focus on was him, standing there, smiling that bland smile at her.

"No," he corrected, his voice tinged with amusement. "Mr. Queen was my father."

"Right, but, he's dead." She caught herself. _Oh my god. _"I mean, he drowned. And you didn't. Which means, you could come down to the IT department and listen to me babble." He continued to look at her, but this time, she could see a smile around his eyes, causing his whole demeanor to lighten up. "Which will end! In three, two, one..."

Oliver looked to be hiding a chuckle. "I'm having some trouble with my computer and they told me that you were the person to come and see," he said, lifting the laptop and setting it on an uncluttered corner of her desk. She bent over it immediately, her finger automatically going to one of the holes in the case. _Curious_. "I was at my coffee shop surfing the web and I spilt a latte on it."

He looked at her with his lips pressed together and she couldn't help but send him a deadpan stare. "Really."

"Yeah."

"Cuz... these look like... bullet holes," she told him, continuing to trace one of the holes with her fingertip. She wasn't stupid and she wasn't sure why he expected her to be stupid. Or to act like she was stupid. Is that how all women were around him? Sure, he was gorgeous, but a girl has some pride, right?

"My coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood," he replied, his face straight.

Felicity was already intrigued and she knew she'd help this guy out. Not just because he was the boss' son-in-law and not because he was built like a god either. This was a mystery and her curiosity was piqued. But that lie? Was ridiculous. And she let him know that she knew it by tilting her head as she stared him. He smiled back, the bland expression back in place.

"If there's anything you can salvage from it? I would really appreciate it."

Well. He wasn't going to acknowledge his lie which meant he had a reason for lying. Even more interesting. Alright, Mr. Queen, she thought to herself. You're on.

"Mmhmm," she murmured in assent. With a last bland smile and a thanks, Oliver handed her a card with number to call when she found something before he turned and walked off, leaving her with the bullet-ridden laptop and a list of questions a mile long. Why on earth was this billionaire playboy messing around with a shot up computer and why was it such a secret why he had it?

A few hours later, she called Oliver at the number he'd left her with. She had information for him but for herself, she only had more questions. He arrived soon after she called, apparently interested in whatever knowledge she could help him with. That interest was just another question mark for her. It was driving her nuts.

He came back to her cubicle and pulled a spare seat over to her desk so he could watch the information she pulled up from the laptop on her computer monitor. The first file she pulled up was...

"This looks like blueprints," she said.

"Do you know what of?"

She glanced at him. He was sitting very close and she could smell his very male scent. It was more than a little distracting. "The Exchange Building."

He shook his head and she turned back to the screen. "Never heard of it."

"It's where the Unidac Industries auction is scheduled to take place," she told him. She'd seen the invite go around to the higher ups in QC the week before. Oliver looked a little confused, his eyebrow up as he looked at her speculatively. Bullshit, Mr. Queen, she thought. She was starting to get an idea of what was going on here and she didn't like it. "I thought you said this was your laptop."

"Yes." It was nearly a whisper. When she continued to stare at him, he nodded in a most unconvincing manner. Did this man have any idea how to lie?

"Look," she began firmly. "I don't want to get in the middle of some Shakespearean family drama thing."

Now, he looked even more confused. His blue eyes darted around. "What?"

Felicity was mildly horrified to realize he might not _know_ Shakespeare. "Mr. Steele marrying your mom." He wasn't getting it. She could tell. "Claudius, Gertrude... Hamlet?"

"I didn't study Shakespeare at any of the four schools I dropped out of," he told her, looking unashamed to admit he'd dropped out of college. His bluntness surprised her, especially given his earlier wheedling. Well, she'd have to spell it out then.

She gestured at the laptop. "Mr. Steele is trying to buy Unidac Industries. And you have a laptop associated with one of the companies that he's competing against." It was pretty clear to her. Oliver was hoping to sabotage his stepfather, even at the risk of his own family's company. Pretty ballsy. Very Hamlet, in her opinion.

"Floyd Lawton," he said and Felicity was confused.

"No, Warren Patel," she corrected, pointing at the name at the corner of the program she'd pulled up. "Who's Floyd Lawton?"

Oliver's expression had darkened and Felicity was a little startled at the change it made to his entire demeanor. His brows were drawn together and his jaw was set. He all but glowered. "He is an... employee of Mr. Patel. Evidently."

She had a feeling there was more to this "employee" business than Oliver was letting on and it was on the tip of her tongue to ask. But she didn't. Because she realized that he still had his reasons for wanting to keep this a secret. Those reasons were a lot more complex than she'd first assumed.

He left her cubicle shortly after that but his dark mood didn't lift. If anything, he seemed to brood more as the moments passed. When he left, she was able to breathe again, not realizing until then that she'd been holding it. What was going on with that guy? And did she really want to get mixed up in it? Shoot, chances were she'd never lay eyes on Oliver Queen again. So she'd best put him and that strange meeting out of her mind.

Oliver Queen ordered a drink from the bar and watched as Tommy talked to a pretty girl on the dance floor, probably trying to get her to dance with him. Why was he wasting his time with that when he and Laurel had made it clear the previous night that they were an item?

Actually, that wasn't true. They _had_ been an item. Oliver couldn't tell if Laurel was interested in a more serious relationship or not. It was clear to him that his best friend was. That was true even before Thea had "spilled the beans" to him several nights ago, at Max Fuller's club. Of course, he'd known about Laurel and Tommy since almost the day he'd gotten back to Starling City. It was hard to keep secrets from the Vigilante.

Oliver wasn't sure how he felt about it. Reconciling with Laurel, while it had once been a focus of his attention when he'd first gotten stranded on the island, had become something far less likely over the years he'd been away. Then, there was the way she'd reacted to him when he'd first returned. The things she had said had been hurtful but she was right to say them. Was there any way to heal that wound in their relationship? Would she even want to? Did he even want to?

Now, he and Tommy were out again, scoping out another club to gather ideas. Actually, Oliver was pretty sure what he wanted to do with the club he was going to open right over his foundry hideout, but Tommy was so enthusiastic about "research" that Oliver couldn't quite say no. Plus, his friend was right, he needed to unwind.

His life had been moving along at breakneck speed since he'd gotten back. One crisis or another had monopolized his time and attention, and it hadn't left much room for just... living. So, he pushed his concerns about his bodyguard, John Diggle, aside for the evening and took another sip of the whiskey that sat on the bar top before him. He'd find some way to convince Dig to help him out, he just wasn't sure how yet. That was a problem better left for the light of day.

Oliver turned his attention to the patrons who were crowding around the bar. A few stools down, a gorgeous young blonde was sitting with a pink martini sitting half drunk before her. He couldn't get a good look at her face, but if it was anything like the rest of her, she was surely a knockout.

Her dress was tight, short and pink, and sparkled in the strobing lights of the club like it was on fire. It left her arms bare, as well as the vast majority of her long, toned legs. Strappy silver sandals with outrageously high heels adorned her feet and he suddenly had an urge to see her standing in them, to see how they shifted her posture. How they made her ass look.

Oliver took another swallow of his drink and let his gaze crawl up her body. He'd always been something of a womanizer, even he knew that. While his experience on the island had tempered his control quite a bit, he still had an eye for a gorgeous woman. The throbbing in his groin told him that his body missed the company of those women even if his brain told him he didn't have the time.

This girl was slender, but with soft curves at her hips and breasts. Something about her petite build called to the primitive inside of him, wanting to cover her body with his; to protect her. And wasn't that a strange thought to have in the middle of a bar? Her long, loose blonde hair obscured her face as she took a sip of her martini, the golden curls bouncing a little as she moved on the stool to the beat of the music. She looked like a girl that wanted to dance. She didn't appear to be talking to anyone and he took a moment to fully appreciate the injustice of a pretty young woman out at a club with no one to dance with.

He could certainly fix that.

Oliver polished off his whiskey and stood up from his stool. The music pounded and thumped around him, joining the alcohol buzzing through his bloodstream to give him confidence as he strolled up to the very pink lady.

"Care for a dance?" he asked, leaning down so he could speak into her ear.

She swiveled around instantly, her mouth popping into an "o" of surprise. And, god help him, her face as just as gorgeous as the rest of her. She had a plush, bow mouth, currently bright pink to match her dress. Her eyes were big and blue... almost a grey-blue, like a storm over the ocean. Her eyes were done up with smokey makeup giving her a very sultry and very mature look. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but he couldn't quite place her.

"Excuse me?" she said, raising her voice to be heard over the music.

"I asked you if you want to dance!"

"Uhm, sure, why not," she said. She finished off her drink and slid off her bar stool. She wobbled when she landed on her stilettos and Oliver grabbed her arm to steady her.

"You got it?"

"Yep. Just... alcohol and high heels... not always a good combo," she explained, giggling a little. She was looking at him oddly, as though she was expecting him to say something but then forgetting why she thought that.

Oliver led her out into the mash of bodies that were moving to the throbbing music and pulled her into his arm. She hesitated for just a moment before relaxing into a smile and linking her hands behind his neck.

God, it felt good to have a woman in his arms again. She felt amazing and smelled even better. Like sunshine on wildflowers. How could anyone smell like that in the middle of a club? She moved to the music, weaving just a little, but he attributed that to the martini. Her movements were still fluid, still sensual and knowledgeable. She had a natural rhythm, which god help him, made him think of other activities where a natural rhythm was a bonus.

"How many drinks have you had?" he finally asked as she leaned heavily into him at one point.

Her beautiful blue eyes were hazed a bit as she gazed up at him. "Three? No... four. I think it was four. Maybe five."

Shit, she was adorable too. Oliver was quickly being sucked down a familiar spiral. He wanted this girl and he was quickly running out of reasons to give himself why he shouldn't have her. At least just for tonight.

"Maybe we should cut you off," he said, lowering his voice. He gave her his sexiest smile and she seemed to melt against him.

"Where's the fun in that," she slurred.

The music changed, shifting into something slower and more erotic. Couples around them began to grind on another. Oh yes, Oliver knew this dance very well. He looked up over her head and saw Tommy over at the bar. He met his friend's eye and winked. Tommy gave her a slow perusal and then flashed him the thumbs up sign.

Oliver pulled her closer to him, fitting her hips against his and fully appreciating the way her curves fit against his rigid planes. Her head rested against his chest, her curling blonde hair tickling his chin as he ducked his head to speak into her ear. "You feel good like this," he told her.

"You feel better," she replied, smoothing her hands over the muscles of his back.

"I don't normally do this," he began, trying to remember quickly what some of the lines he'd used back in the day were. God, he was out of practice.

"I don't buy that for a second," she said. "I think you've done this quite a few times, Oliver."

Wait. He pulled away from her so he could see her eyes. "How do you know my name?"

She cocked her head at him and, at that gesture, it came to him in a flash. This was the very same girl he'd taken Floyd Lawton's laptop to at QC! What was her name again? "Felicity?"

She blinked, her big blue eyes at him and then smiled, the alcohol she'd had making it lopsided. "Who did you think I was?"

"I thought you were a gorgeous woman. You _are_ a gorgeous woman. I just didn't recognize you with all..." He broke off and gestured at her. Instead of getting offended she just giggled that tipsy laugh of hers that he was growing very fond of.

"That's kind of the point, Oliver," she purred, gazing up from him from beneath her darkened lashes as she once again wound her arms around his neck. This time, she linked her wrists, drawing him closer. He allowed himself to be drawn.

They danced like that for a minute, swaying together and Oliver wondered if the knowledge that she worked for his family's company should deter him from seducing her tonight. Was it wise to have a one night stand with someone like her as opposed to a random girl in a bar? Before the island, he wouldn't have thought twice about the consequences. Now, his life was nothing _but_ consequences.

But he was tired and lonely, and she was looking at him like she wanted to eat him up and dammit, it felt _good_. It didn't have to be a problem. He was a big boy now and she seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders. This could work, he promised himself. But then, why did that feel so much like _lying_?

"Does this change your stance?" Felicity asked at last. The music was low enough, though still throbbing, that he could just barely hear her from where her head still rested on his chest.

"Hmm? My stance on what?" He smoothed a hand over her hip, enjoying the curve and the warmth of her skin that seeped through the fabric of her dress.

"On what you were saying to me before we got sidetracked. You were giving me a line, about how you don't normally do this."

"That was not a line!"

She snorted. _Snorted_. Dammit, that was adorable too.

"Okay, before the island, I did this sort of thing all the time. Since the island? Not at all."

Felicity lifted her head and met his eyes. She must have seen something authentic there because she sighed and replaced her head. "You didn't answer my question."

"No, Felicity. It doesn't change my stance. I still..." He grabbed her hip with one of his hand, the other hand pressed into the middle of her back. They continued to sway together to the music. "I still want you."

There was silence for a moment and Oliver felt something he'd never felt before in his life: uncertainty. He fought against tightening his grip while he waited for her response.

"Okay, then," she murmured.

Something in his chest loosened. The end of the song was nearing when another thought occurred to him.

"What about you?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you do this sort of thing often?"

Oliver was surprised when Felicity suddenly threw her head back and laughed. It was a musical sound, and he couldn't help but appreciate the long smooth column of her neck and the way her curls cascaded behind her.

"Hell no. I don't even usually go out to the club. See, my friend Stacy from MIT, we were roommates for two years, she's working for Wayne Enterprises in Gotham and I never get to see her but we Skype all the time. And she told me that I had to go out tonight to an actual club, take a selfie of myself while I was there and send it to her as proof."

Oliver couldn't fight the laugh that bubbled up in his throat and he wondered for a second if this was the first time he'd laughed since the island. First she'd coaxed a genuine smile from him and now a laugh. He could only imagine what would come next.

He backed away a little and held out his hand to her. "Hand me your phone, I'll take the picture," he offered.

Eyebrow raised, Felicity reached down the neck of her dress and into her bra, extracting a slim, state-of-the-art cell phone a moment later. She handed it to him and he had a moment to appreciate how it was warmed from the heat of her body. He turned it on and opened the camera app. "Okay, smile!"

She gave a coquettish grin, batting her dark lashes and doing her best sultry vamp look for the camera. It was working, Oliver noted, as even more of his blood flow journeyed south to his groin. She blew him a kiss before she took the phone back. He watched as her fingers tapped at the screen and then she tucked the phone back into her bra.

"I sent it to her with a little note about how it was taken by the guy I'm bringing home with me," she informed him.

Anticipation swam in his veins and he stepped up to her again, cupping her shoulder with his palm, rubbing her soft skin. "Is that so?"

"That's so, Mr. Queen," she murmured.

"I told you," he replied, his voice low and soft as he let his heated gaze travel over her face, ending up at her lips. "Mr. Queen was my father."

Felicity grabbed the lapels of his sport coat and pulled him down, pressing her lips to his. She caught him off guard and for a brief moment, all he noticed was that her lips were indeed as soft as they looked. Then, his brain caught up with what was going on and he wrapped his arms around her, one hand cradling the back of her head. He angled his head so that he could kiss her deeper and she opened for him, allowing him to stroke his tongue into her mouth.

Sweet Jesus, she tasted amazing. And the way she responded to him, pressing herself against his body and scratching her nails through his closely-cropped hair stirred his already thrumming arousal to new heights. Oh yes, this was going to happen. God help him, he couldn't think of any reasons not to anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for the tremendous reaction to this chapter! I'm stunned and pleased. Thanks for joining me on this ride, I have some great things in store. This story is far from over!**

Felicity hadn't been lying when she'd told Oliver she'd never done this before. In fact, this was so far out of the realm of "Things She Did" that she giggled breathlessly the entire way back to her townhouse in the cab. Well, that's when she wasn't busy being quieted by Oliver's talented mouth on hers. He could hardly keep his hands off her for the ten minutes it took to get from the club to her townhouse down by the river.

Of course, the same could be said for her. But those _arms_. Who could resist?

Oliver paid the cab fare while Felicity fished her keys out of her handbag. Her hands were shaking as she tried to fit the key into the lock, but she didn't think she was nervous. She'd been nervous a lot of times in her life and this didn't feel anything like it. A warm hand covered hers, stilling her quaking and pushing the key further into the lock. Oliver. He stood behind her, helped her get the door open, and then held it while she walked in ahead of him.

Felicity flicked the light in the entryway on before dumping her handbag and keys on the table next to the door. Now the nerves were beginning to take root and she moved into the living room, turning on lights. She started babbling about how she'd found this townhouse when she'd gotten the job at QC and moved to Starling City, and she kept babbling when she realized he wasn't saying anything. Finally, she ran out of words and the pounding in her chest became too much to ignore. Turning to the entryway, she saw Oliver hadn't moved from where he stood next to the door. He had a shuttered expression on his face. Oh god, was he regretting his decision to come here?

"Oliver, what's the matter?" she asked, feeling a bit breathless.

"Felicity, I hope you know that this... this is just for tonight," he said.

When she just looked at him, he continued. "I can't do a relationship right now. And I don't want you to think that there's any future between us if we do this and I don't want your feelings to be hurt when I don't..."

"Oliver," she finally interrupted him. "I get it. It's a one night stand. I know how these things work."

Truthfully, she wasn't sure she wanted to worry about getting involved with Oliver Queen anyhow. He was clearly still dealing with his ordeal on that island and even before then he wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue. Falling for a guy like him was stupid with a capital S. Felicity liked to think she had a better sense of self-preservation than that. However, he was also very hot, very willing, and very much in her townhouse right now. She wasn't so practical as to miss a golden opportunity when it was presented to her.

Oliver relaxed visibly, a smile spreading across his handsome face as he stepped into the living room, taking her hands in his. "I used to be good at this. One night stands, that is."

"Don't worry. I promise not to get attached," she said with a wink.

An instant later, his mouth was on hers, his lips massaging hers, coaxing a response. He wrapped his arms around her, yanking her against the hard length of his body. His tongue stroked along hers, tasting her, devouring her. _Shit_, he was a good kisser.

Felicity leaned her head back as Oliver moved across her jaw and down her throat. His lips worked at a spot on her neck, just under her ear and she swore the sensation made her see stars behind her closed eyelids. She moaned as her knees weakened which only caused Oliver to redouble his efforts, supporting her weight with his arms as he turned them and pressed her against the wall of her living room.

She could feel the bulge of his erection against her belly as his hips pressed into hers and there was a thrill of satisfaction that she'd done this to him, that she'd affected him like this. Felicity didn't often get to feel like a woman and she knew a lot of the blame for that rested on her shoulders because she was reluctant to let people into her life. But right now? She was 100% female and Oliver's guttural groan as she rolled her hips into his thrilled her ears and proved it. His lips covered hers once more and this time, his tongue thrust into her mouth right away. Her blood pounded in her ears as she tasted him and he explored her. She'd never felt like this, like she might burst into flames at any moment.

Finally, Felicity tore her mouth from his. "Bedroom," she gasped.

Oliver grunted his agreement and he picked her up effortlessly, settling her over his shoulder. "Which way?" he asked, his voice strained.

Felicity had a good view of his butt from here. Even through jeans, it looked tight, round, and firm. Wait, he'd asked her a question, hadn't he? "To the left, end of the hall," she instructed. With one arm wrapped around his waist, she moved her free hand to his ass, rubbing her palm over it as he strode in the direction she'd given him.

"Like what you see back there?" he asked, sounding amused.

"Very much." It was every bit as firm as she'd initially thought. _God help her._

A moment later, Felicity found herself being flipped through the air. She landed on her bed with a bounce and Oliver stood at the edge of her bed, cocky smirk in place on his face.

"You think you're all that, don't you?" she asked, but she couldn't hide the smile that bloomed across her lips.

"I have it on good authority that I am," he replied easily. He stripped off his sport coat and tossed it aside before moving on to the buttons of his dress shirt.

She watched him, enthralled, as his skin was revealed to her, inch by inch. As Oliver peeled the shirt from his shoulders, she saw not just his muscles and finely toned skin, but a multitude of angry-looking scars and several tattoos. Felicity pushed up into a sitting position and leaned forward, reaching out to touch him. She stopped, her fingertips an inch away from the line of puckered scars next to his hip, and looked up, meeting his eyes. He was gazing down at her, his blue eyes darkened and his jaw tight.

"Is it okay if I-?" she asked.

Oliver nodded. "Please."

Lightly, she touched her fingers to the raised flesh, tracing along the edges, down to where the scar disappeared into the waistband of his jeans. Then, she reached up, stroking along the hard lines of his abdominal muscles, to the scars that slashed across his chest. She felt those as well. Felicity continued her exploration until she'd mapped each of the scars on the front of his body. Oliver shuddered out a breath as she pushed up on her knees so that her face was level with his.

He kept his eyes on her as he reached behind her and drew the zipper of her dress down and then pushed the garment off her shoulders, exposing her chest. She wore a lace trimmed bra, one of her favorites, and right how she was glad she'd picked that one instead of her "sturdy" bra. Oliver took a moment to appreciate the view, drawing his index finger along the frilly edge before reaching behind her again to undo the clasp. With a flick of his fingers, it fell open and he drew it away from her body. Damn, he was way too good at that.

Before Oliver could get more than a glance at her body and before she lost her nerve, Felicity leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, tracing the seam of his mouth with her tongue until he opened and let her in. He cupped the back of her head with his hand and splayed his other hand across her back. Felicity was so busy kissing him that she didn't notice him leaning her backwards until her back met the mattress. Oliver braced himself over her as he took control of the kiss, quickly overwhelming her with the power of his lips and his tongue and the feel of his hands as they smoothed over her body, pushing her dress down over her hips until she was able to kick it away.

Then, he was moving down, drawing his lips along her skin, dipping his tongue at her clavicle before nibbling at her collarbone. His stubble rubbed against the tender flesh of her breasts and he took his time moving down over them, nuzzling with his nose and tasting with his lips and tongue. Felicity began to writhe underneath him, whimpering as Oliver kept up the onslaught on her flesh with his mouth. When he reached her breasts, he made a deep noise of appreciation as he licked at her nipple, teasing it to an aching point while his fingers teased its twin. She'd never thought her breasts were particularly sensitive, but she was finding out quite differently right now.

Felicity gasped as Oliver sucked her nipple into the warmth of his mouth, pulling hard and stroking the already throbbing bud with his tongue. Her hand flew to the back of his head, holding him lightly to her breast as her hips rocked unconsciously. "Oliver," she moaned. She sounded needy, even to her own ears, but she had no idea what she was asking for other than more.

All she heard was a dark chuckle as he released her flesh. The hand that had been playing with her other nipple skated down over her abdomen and towards the waistband of her underwear. A fingertip traced the lace edging, giving her just enough sensation to let her know that she needed more.

"Please," she begged.

"Please what?" he murmured, sounding for all the world like he was taking a stroll in the park, like he had all the time in the world.

"Stop teasing me," she growled.

He sat back, resting on his knees next to her and used both hands to grab the edge of her underwear and pull it down. Felicity fought the flush rising up to her cheeks as she lifted her hips to help him pull the offending garment off. He could see her now, all of her. He could see that her belly was a little more rounded than she cared for it to be, that her thighs weren't as toned as they should be and if he turned her over, he'd see that her butt was also more rounded than was fashionable. All her flaws suddenly spilled into her mind, making her flush deepen and she squeezed her thighs together to hide her last secret from his deliberate gaze.

Oliver simply reached over and pulled her knees apart, situating himself between them so she could no longer close them. His hand skated up her leg, over the tender flesh of her thighs, towards her center. "Don't hide from me," he told her, keeping his eyes on his hand as he brushed his fingers along her outer lips, through the short trimmed hair there. "You're beautiful."

Something in Felicity's chest twisted at his words and she suddenly felt all too aware of the intimacy that was surrounding them both. Weren't one night stands supposed to be all about need and desire and a quick, hard fuck? She knew she wasn't very good at doing this, at keeping things so casual, but she'd expected Oliver to be all about the easy pleasure. What he was doing now, this slow, tender seduction, was the last thing she'd expected and she could feel the intensity pulling her down a dark, deep rabbit hole.

But then his fingers began to trace along her slit, delving between her outer lips and teasing at her clit and her already soaked entrance, and all thoughts of worry and concern flew out of her mind.

"God, you're so wet for me," Oliver murmured and his voice was finally rough with arousal. She reveled in the sound.

Felicity lifted her hips towards his hand, silently begging for more. He licked his lips and removed his fingers, making her keen. She watched through heavy eyelids as he moved quickly, pulling a foil wrapper out of his jeans pocket and then shucking his shoes, jeans and boxer briefs with an elegant speed that she envied. She never looked that sexy when pulling her jeans off, lord knows. He quickly tore open the condom wrapper and unrolled the latex onto his length while she admired the sight of this magnificent man, naked before her.

His defined abdominals sloped down to his groin, framed by his muscled thighs and the proud erection that stood between them. Sweet Lord, he was big. Long and thick and hard as a rock from the look of it. His gave his length a couple pumps with his hand after he had himself sheathed, groaning and letting his head fall back. A fresh wave of heat burst across her skin at the erotic sigh. She reached for him, grabbing his hips and digging her nails into the hard skin of his arse as she tried to pull him towards her.

Oliver looked down at her, grin in place as he moved over her. "Impatient?"

"I've been impatient all night," she replied, feeling ever more breathless.

"Me too." He moved over her, holding his cock and nudging it through her folds, gathering her wetness and driving her arousal ever higher.

"Oliver," she groaned.

Oliver answered her groan as he pushed into her. He had to pause, rock his hips and allow her to adjust before continuing. He stretched her, filling her more than she knew she could be filled. His head dipped down, resting on her shoulder briefly as he took several deep breaths. Then, after a steadying moment, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes. His own blue depths were dark and focused and she saw the sweat beading on his forehead.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice soft.

Felicity nodded. She didn't trust her voice to reply right then.

He pulled back a little and then thrust in hard, this time seating himself fully inside her. She could feel herself spasming around him, the pain quickly melting into pleasure as he repeated the move. Felicity planted her feet on the bed and moved her hips to meet his as they quickly established a rhythm. Oliver braced on his elbows over her and his eyes never left hers, except when he dipped his head to kiss her, hard, long, and deep. His tongue mimicked the movement of his cock, stroking in and out of her mouth in time with his thrusts.

Felicity could no longer stay quiet and she moaned loudly as he stroked against a spot deep inside of her that set her nerves alight. Oliver answered her moans and filled her ears with a litany of praise, telling her how tight she was, how hot and wet and good she felt, how he needed this, he needed her. She wasn't sure how much of it was bullshit and she didn't care one bit because she felt so much the same right then.

She coaxed him to move harder, faster, and he happily obliged. Soon, Felicity's room was filled with the sounds of flesh slapping, the bed shaking, their moans turning into throaty cries, and the grunts of exertion.

"Felicity, I'm close," he panted before kissing her deeply again. He pulled away with a shudder. "I need you to come for me."

She was so close too, straining upwards and reaching, climbing. She reached between their sweaty bodies and Oliver soon got the hint. He moved her hand and replaced it with his as he pressed on her clit with his index finger before swirling around it, flicking it, and then pressing again. That did it for her and with the next thrust of his hips she broke apart. Her cries rang off the walls as she dug her nails into his shoulders. He fucked her through her orgasm, pounding into her, his eyes rapt on her face as her blood rushed in her ears and her tremors finally began to subside.

Before she could slide completely into sated bliss, Oliver began to come, his face straining and his eyes slamming shut as he pulsed inside of her. He was unbelievably gorgeous, she thought as she felt the aftershocks run through her body. She lifted her shoulders up, capturing his lips with hers and he returned the kiss greedily as his hips began to slow and then stilled.

They lay like that for a few minutes, breathing heavily in between kisses. Oliver wrapped his arms around her before rolling over. He slid out of her and situated her next to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

"Oliver," she began, not knowing what she was going to say next, but feeling like she had to acknowledge something.

"Shh," he soothed. She felt his lips at her hairline. "Just sleep. We'll talk later."

Felicity wanted to protest, but she felt like a pile of goo at the moment. It felt so good to be held by him, hearing his strong heartbeat near her ear. She closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.

—

Felicity woke the next morning to her alarm going off, buzzing away on her nightstand. She fumbled for it, reaching for the switch that would silence the darned thing. It was a Saturday, a sleep-in day, and normally she turned off the alarm on Friday night before going to bed. But she'd been a little, erm, _distracted_ the night before.

Suddenly remembering exactly why she'd been so distracted, Felicity quickly turned over, only to see the other side of the bed vacant. She fought the wave of disappointment that threatened to crash over her as she sat up and stared at the indentation in the pillow, where his head had been. So much for talking later, huh? She shouldn't be surprised that he'd snuck off in the middle of the night, but somehow she was anyhow.

She stood up, feeling the twinge between her legs, the aching soreness that told her she'd been fucked well and good. As she hurried into her adjoined bathroom to take care of business and wash up for the day, Felicity mused about how good that fucking had been. It's not as though she'd had a whole lot of sex in her life. Her roommate at MIT had far outshone her, at least in the sheer numbers department. There'd been her high school boyfriend, her first 'love'. And then a couple of guys at MIT. Then Rory, last year. That had only lasted a couple of weeks before she couldn't put up with his constant bragging. Never again was she dating another IT nerd. Felicity knew it was a bit hypocritical of her, being an IT nerd herself, but at least she knew how to rein in her smugness. At least she hoped so.

As Felicity rinsed the shampoo out of her hair in the shower, she couldn't help but replay the entire night with Oliver over in her head. It hadn't been anything like she would have expected, if she'd known to expect it at all. Which she hadn't. Never in a million years had she ever thought a man like Oliver Queen would notice her. Even after he came to her cubicle for help with his laptop, she'd figured he'd only ever see her as the nerdy girl who helped him out one time. He definitely hadn't looked at her like she was a geek last night. Felicity had clearly seen the passion in his eyes, felt the restrained strength in his arms as he'd held her, heard the roughened tone of his voice as he'd called out her name, tasted the spice of his mouth and tongue...

And... now she was getting off track. Felicity finished up her shower quickly, before her mind could wander again, and got out of the shower to dry herself and get dressed. She didn't have anywhere to be today, but she knew once she was awake in the morning, there was little hope of getting back to sleep. And if she got back in that bed, which still smelled of him, smelled of them, she knew there was no way she'd be able to sleep.

No, better to get on about her day. Maybe she'd clean the kitchen. The bathroom could use a freshening too. Oh heck, why not the whole townhouse? She could even do a few loads of laundry while she was at it. Get the sheets on her bed cleaned.

Yes, that was a good plan.

After she dressed in a pair of old sweats suitable for cleaning, Felicity trudged out of her bedroom to fix herself a cup of coffee. She detoured past the table next to her front door where she'd dumped her purse the night before, fishing out the cell phone that she'd stashed in there during the cab ride back to her place. Sliding a finger across the screen to open it up, Felicity noticed that her friend had indeed texted her back after she'd sent the picture of herself at the club. Jenna's enthusiasm was apparent as she demanded to know who her hookup was. Before, Felicity might have told her. But now... Felicity tucked the phone into the pocket of her sweatpants and headed into the kitchen. Now she felt a little more protective about the whole encounter.

She'd just gotten her favorite mug out of the cabinet when she saw a note on the counter next to the coffee pot. She picked it up and read it. His handwriting wasn't familiar to her, but she found there was something about the tidy scrawl that she admired.

_Sorry, I had to leave. Thank you for last night. You were wonderful._

_-Oliver_

Sighing, she put the note down and ran a hand over her forehead. Before the disappointment could swamp her, she reminded herself that this was for the best. She didn't want a relationship with Oliver Queen. Getting involved with him was at the top of the list of "bad ideas". She wasn't the sort to indulge in casual relationships and he wasn't the sort to want to settle down. They couldn't possibly be less suited to one another.

Felicity kept herself busy the rest of the day, which suited her just fine. If she was busy, she wasn't thinking about her night with Oliver. By the time she was back at work on Monday, she had gotten pretty good at putting the whole experience out of her mind. By the time Wednesday rolled around, she'd hardly thought of him all day at all. That is, until the news reports started coming in about him being arrested.

The television in the break room at Queen Consolidated was tuned to the local news channel and the reporter was talking about the story while video footage showed Oliver Queen being led, handcuffed, into the police precinct to be booked on suspicion of being the vigilante.

All her co-workers laughed, scoffing at the notion of a useless playboy being some avenging crime fighter under the cover of night. As Felicity watched the television, watched Oliver trying to hide his face from the cameras, the hard set of his jaw, she wondered.

Felicity suspected she was one of the few people who knew that Oliver wasn't all that he seemed on the television. The media loved to portray him as yet another billionaire bad boy, lazy and irresponsible and extravagant. She could hardly count herself as an expert, someone who had only had two encounters with the man. But something about those encounters had shown her that he was more than just a (_very_) pretty face.

As she stirred the soup she'd reheated in the oven, Felicity thought about the laptop he'd brought her. Obviously, he'd given her a line about how it had gotten damaged and had tried to pass off that the laptop belonged to him. She hadn't believed it at the time and she believed it even less now. Clearly, he was hiding something.

And then during their night together, Oliver had been so much more than the selfish, impatient lover that she might have assumed he'd be. He'd been tender, sweet, but passionate and intense. There was more to him than met the eye, that was for sure. Glancing back at the television, where the news program had paused on a flash of Oliver's face while continuing to talk about his arrest, she wondered if maybe there wasn't some truth to the allegations.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: THANK YOU to everyone who has left reviews on this story! The amount of interest and support has been lovely. I wish there was a better way to respond to reviews here, but rest assured, I see every note and I treasure it! Now, as for the story... We get a peek at the beginning of this chapter at what Oliver is thinking in the aftermath of the one night stand. After that, the next chapter or so is from Felicity's point of view. While their night together has definitely changed the way they look at each other, the story (for now) follows canon. Later on, there will be a shift towards more AU territory. Trust me on this one! I have it all planned out. ;) **

He was lucky. Oliver knew that. His plan had worked perfectly. It had been a risk, setting himself up to get arrested so that John Diggle could help erase suspicion against him. Dig hadn't been too happy that Oliver hadn't consulted with him on the plan beforehand. Still, Oliver thought it was better the way it had gone down. Now, no one would think to suspect him of being the vigilante.

Oliver lay in bed, looking at the shadows cast on his ceiling from the moonlight filtering through the trees outside his bedroom window. He thought about the moment he'd had with Laurel in this very room earlier that night. After giving him the cold shoulder right after he'd returned, she'd finally warmed up to him. For once, she'd been sympathetic about his experience and had asked to see his scars.

Laurel was hardly the first person to see his scars since he'd been back. There'd been the doctors and nurses at the hospital when he'd first arrived. Dig had seen them. Felicity had seen them as well.

Thinking about the blonde IT girl, Oliver felt a squeezing in his chest. He'd felt bad slipping out of her bed, her apartment, and her life in the middle of the night the way he had. But as he'd lain awake with her sleeping so peacefully in his arms, he'd begun to think about what it might be to settle down, put his mission aside, and just live his life.

Then, the guilt had set in. It wasn't just a mission, his donning of the hood and trying to save the city. It was his duty and the very least he owed his father for his sacrifice on that life raft. That duty came before anything else and he had no business indulging in any fantasies along the way. Felicity was a surprise to him and the way they had come together, like two halves of a whole, had rattled him to his core. He'd had plenty of one night stands before the island; he hadn't lied to Felicity about that. But none of them had been remotely like that night with her at her townhouse.

Shit, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had sex like that. Maybe he'd never had sex like that. Oliver tried to think back to the last time he'd been with Laurel, so long ago. They'd had fun, that was for sure. It was the same with Sara. She knew how to press all his buttons and they always had a blast together. His night with Felicity stood out from those experiences. Was it just a matter of him getting older and more mature? Maybe that was it.

Oliver remembered the look of stunned horror on Laurel's face when she'd pulled apart the edges of his shit to look at his scars. His heart had caught in his throat. It occurred to him then that maybe too much had transpired on the island. He'd been through too much, been too damaged, and Laurel could never reconcile what he'd been through, even if she did forgive him for his hand in Sara's death. She still thought of him as Ollie, the boy who'd left Starling City five years ago.

That kid was dead. He died on that life raft when his dad shot himself in the head. He died again on the island when Yao Fei tried to train him, when Fyers' men tortured him, when any number of the other horrible things happened to him. When he was the one forced to do the horrible things. He wasn't the same man and he never would be the same again. Maybe he'd thought he could get back to that, but the more time that passed, the more he carried out his plan to fight for his city, the more he realized this was a new reality he was living in.

Felicity hadn't regarded his scars with horror. She'd been curious, she'd touched and traced each and every one on the front of his body, but the look in her eye had been... different. It felt almost as though she'd accepted the scars as part of who he was, which they were. The rough patches of skin simply marked another feature for her. While she'd paid attention to each one, she'd also paid attention his nipples, his hip bone, and his ridged abdomen. She'd taken him all in and had accepted him.

Maybe that was the difference.

Anyhow, there was no point in dwelling on it. Felicity was a one night stand. There was no future there and the sooner he accepted that truth, the better. For the both of them.

—

A week or so later, Dig convinced him to look into a string of robberies aimed at all the big banks in town. The distraction was welcome; getting Felicity off his mind was proving more difficult than he'd expected. The more he tried not to think about her, remember the way she'd looked underneath him with her blonde hair curling over the bedspread, her lips plump and swollen from his kisses, her eyes dark and lidded with desire for him... the more he thought about it. And wanted her. If he couldn't get her off his mind when he wasn't around her, how hard would it be when he was? So he stayed away, purposefully.

The problem was, they needed more information about who was fronting this ring. Everything so far had added up to it being someone with a story, with a specific vendetta and Oliver was chomping to get to the bottom of it. Oliver's computer skills weren't bad, but when it came down to tracking someone down and getting some real concrete information on them, he knew he wasn't the best man for the job. And he knew who was.

Well, not the best man. The best woman, maybe.

"So how did you meet this girl again?" Dig asked as they rode the elevator up to the executive floor where Walter's office was. Oliver had called up to IT when they'd arrived at Queen Consolidated and asked Felicity's supervisor to send her up. Yes, it was a cowardly move on his part. Yes, he could have found the number for the phone at her desk and called her himself. No, he wasn't that bold.

"I brought Floyd Lawton's laptop to her to find out what was on it," Oliver explained. It was the truth, after all. Like hell he was going to mention their one night stand. Dig would just give him that disapproving look of his, the one he gave him whenever he thought Oliver was getting mixed up in something that was ultimately going to damage him. Or someone else. Oliver was counting on Felicity remaining professional. She wasn't one of those overly emotional girls like he'd used to scam on back in the day. He felt like he could trust her.

"Can we trust her?" Dig asked bluntly, unconsciously echoing Oliver's thoughts.

"Yes. She's smart and practical and doesn't ask too many questions."

"Yet."

Oliver just snorted as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. They stepped out into the elevator lobby.

"Tell me plain, man. Is this just some girl you're looking to get involved with?" Dig asked.

How to answer this? "She's not for me, Dig," Oliver told him. That was the truth. He had no business getting involved with a girl like Felicity. She deserved so much more than a damaged husk like himself.

"That'd be a change," Dig muttered as they walked past Walter's secretary, giving her a wave. Oliver grit his teeth and tried to ignore Dig's jab.

They both stepped into Walter's office. Walter was off in Australia on business so his desk was empty. Felicity sat in one of the chairs in the sitting area, a laptop perched in her lap and her fingers were tapping away at the keys.

She looked good. Scratch that. She looked amazing. How had he expected her to dim in reality simply because she shone so brightly in his recollection? She was wearing a pink blouse like she had the last time he'd come to her for tech help, and her hair was in the same pony tail, the curls cascading down her back. The blouse was paired with a pencil skirt and some attractive heels. She exuded an air of sexy librarian and while that had never been a thing for him in the past, he was finding it was quickly becoming a turn on for him.

Oliver cleared his throat and Felicity's head snapped up. Her eyes were big and round behind the rims of her glasses and her mouth, painted a bright and rather distracting red, formed into an O. She set the laptop onto the table in front of her and stood up, smoothing her hands on her skirt.

"Mr. Queen! Hi! I, uh, got your message to meet you here," she said, sounding so flustered that he couldn't help but find it a little adorable. Her gaze darted to Dig, who moved behind him to lean against the edge of Walter's desk. "Uhm, what's this about?"

"Felicity, I've told you to call me Oliver," he reminded her, feeling a surge of pleasure at her blush and averted eyes. She was definitely remembering their night together. "This is John Diggle. He's my driver and bodyguard. Dig, this is Felicity Smoak. She works in the IT department here at Queen Consolidated."

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am," Dig said.

"You too," she replied, smiling now. "So, does this mean you have another bullet ridden laptop for me?"

Oliver smirked. "Not quite. I was wondering if you could help me find a friend of mine." He gestured to the chair she'd been sitting in and she sat while he took the chair opposite her.

She lifted the laptop from the table and set it on her lap again. She opened the lid with dark pink tipped fingers and with a sigh, muttered, "I should add personal internet researcher for Oliver Queen to my job title."

Oliver fought the urge to laugh, huffing a sigh instead while a smile played with the edges of his lips. She gland up at him, a little startled, perhaps realizing her faux pas. She smiled, though the expression didn't meet her eyes. "Happily, I mean." She pushed her glasses up her nose and regarded him seriously.

"His name was Derek Reston. We were close before I... went away and... I want to get back in touch." It was a better cover story than a spilt latte, he thought. He fought to keep his eyes off of Felicity's knees which kept drawing his attention.

"Guess you didn't have Facebook on that island," she remarked as she tapped away at the keyboard.

"Nope," Dig piped up. "Not even a MySpace account. It was a very dark time." Oliver looked over to find Dig smirking at him. Had he noticed Oliver's wandering eyes?

"Well, there's not much here that's recent," Felicity said, studying the screen. "No credit activity, no utility bills..." Her eyebrows shot up. "Oh! I guess you guys must have met at the factory."

Oliver's attention was torn away from Felicity's knees by that. His brow creased with confusion. "Wait, what? What factory?" He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

Felicity met his eyes. She looked surprised at his confusion. She pushed her glasses up her nose again. "The Queen steel factory," she said. "Reston worked there for fifteen years until it shut down in '07."

Dig leaned forward too, interested. Oliver felt a puzzle piece sliding into place. "Derek Reston worked for my father?"

"You weren't really close friends, huh?" Felicity didn't look surprised. He just met her eyes and after a moment, she averted hers. "Looks like Derek was the factory foreman until your dad outsourced production to China. Fifteen hundred employees got laid off. Looks like the finance guys even found a loophole in the union contract so they didn't have to pay severance packages and pensions to their employees." She met his eyes again and he saw judgment there. He didn't like it, because he felt the guilt of his own family's involvement keenly enough as it was. For whatever reason, Felicity's disappointment in his family, and by extension him, bothered him all the more. And she wasn't done. "They all pretty much lost their homes." She glanced at Dig before turning her big grey-blue eyes back to him. "Including your friend."

Her emphasis on the word "friend" told him that she, like before, suspected his cover story. But she didn't press further. Oliver felt the guilt slide over him like a familiar blanket. He looked at Dig and exchanged a grimace with the other man. Damn if this didn't make everything that much more complicated.

Oliver turned his attention back to Felicity and relaxed his face into a smile. He got to his feet and she set aside the laptop before doing the same. "Thank you, Ms. Smoak, I appreciate all your help," he told her, sticking out his hand. She accepted it, shaking it, and he couldn't help but notice and appreciate how small her hand was in his, how soft and warm it was.

"It's my pleasure. You always bring me the most interesting requests," she said. The glint in her eyes was knowing, but she didn't expand on her thought and Oliver was grateful for that. Dig shook her hand as well, and together they walked out of Walter's office and back to the elevators.

"She's cute," Dig remarked, pressing the call button.

"I hadn't noticed."

"Liar."

Damned perceptive man.

—

Felicity had thought she'd done pretty well at getting Oliver Queen out of her thoughts until he'd come to her for information on Derek Reston. The chemistry between them all but crackled, but the mystery he'd presented her had distracted her well enough. Mostly. Okay, so she had been intensely aware of his presence sitting across from her, his feet nearly touching hers, the purely masculine aura he exuded. Of course she had. She wasn't dead.

Still, Oliver hadn't referred to their night together and she wasn't about to be the one to bring it up. The meeting had been purely professional and, while she was a bit disappointed that Oliver seemed to have moved past their shared passion, she was also practical enough to know that keeping things professional between them was for the best. No way was she going to allow herself to get hung up on or involved with Oliver Queen. That man could crush her heart without even trying.

Plus, she'd had the impression that he was again lying to her. Felicity didn't think he actually was friends with Derek Reston. Why he was looking for information on him, she wasn't sure. But learning that the man's life had virtually been ruined by the closing of the Queen steel factory had prickled at her empathy. Oliver too had seemed bothered by the information and she had to think that was a good sign. If he was truly a careless playboy, he wouldn't care at all, right?

A day or so later, however, Felicity noticed a news report that a man named Derek Reston had been shot and killed during a bank robbery. It was the same Derek Reston. She hoped it was just a coincidence, but something told her that it wasn't.

Weeks passed without any interaction with Oliver and Felicity was actually a bit glad for it. Maybe she could truly put their encounter behind her and file it away in the "good memory" column. Why did it have to be more than that? Still, Oliver's name was constantly in the news, and therefore, he was a frequent topic of conversation in the IT department break room.

He began seeing the daughter of another of Starling City's movers and shakers, Helena Bertinelli. Her father, Victor Bertinelli, was something of a shady character from what Felicity knew, but she convinced herself that it wasn't any of her business before she found herself researching them on the internet. What did it matter if Oliver was dating someone? He should have someone to spend time with and Helena was exactly the sort of woman who was suited to him. Tall, sleek, and beautiful, she exuded a sophisticated air and the paparazzi pictures she'd seen of the couple in the paper had shown an attractive pair.

Shoot, if Oliver could move on past their night together, maybe she should too. She'd put off Jeremy from her department when he'd asked her out for drinks after work last week, but now she was thinking maybe she should take him up on it. But then Helena's father had been arrested and Helena had apparently left town; there was no more paparazzi photos of her with Oliver in the papers and Felicity resisted looking up information on her own. It really wasn't her business.

In the meantime, Walter Steele, the current CEO of Queen Consolidated had continued to call on her services. Felicity had initially wondered if it was because Oliver had used her help in the past, but after the first meeting with Walter where he wanted her to look into some accounts that his wife, Oliver's mother, was involved in, she dismissed the idea. Oliver didn't seem like the type of guy to be suspicious of his own mother so she doubted he was involved in whatever Walter was looking for. That didn't deter her from helping out her boss, who was one of the few people who treated her with respect and kindness. During lulls in her workload in the IT department, she'd started looking in to other discrepancies.

She probably should have kept her nose out of it. But mysteries were a peeve of hers. Well, peeve was probably too strong of a word to use. She enjoyed the challenge they presented and the puzzle would eat away at her until she had it solved. Felicity had been known to sit up all night, reading a book, because she couldn't rest until the mystery was solved. Her mom had once told her that she was too curious for her own good and maybe, for once in her life, she was right.

Walter hadn't appreciated her latest meddling and had made it clear to her when he'd chastised her in his office. The subtle threat to fire her had neither gone unnoticed nor had it been taken lightly. Felicity needed this job. Without it, she might have to move back to Vegas and live with her mother, and she just couldn't handle that.

But then, Walter had called her to his office. Certain she was about to be fired, she'd practically given herself an ulcer during the ride up to his office in the elevator. The last thing she'd expected was for Walter to hand her a book with seemingly empty pages, requesting her to look into it. Perhaps the suspicions she'd shared with him before hadn't been meddling. Apparently, Walter had taken her concerns seriously and had investigated for himself.

Why would Moira Queen have a blank notebook with a strange symbol on the front page? That didn't make sense. The only logical conclusion Felicity could think of was that it wasn't an empty book at all, but rather, filled with information that was sensitive enough to be hidden from plain view. Felicity was rather proud of her tech savviness and Applied Sciences was used to her requests for information about different technologies. She was also known to borrow said technologies on occasion, just to try out for her own curiosity. So no one raised much fuss when she asked to borrow a pair of special glasses that were made to pick up the sub visible variations in the UV spectrum. She tried them and looked at the book, both surprised and unsurprised to see text now revealed.

She brought the information to Walter right away, but not before she made a note of what was noted in the book for her own information. It was a list of names. She had a suspicion already, but she wanted more time to research online and see if her suspicions were correct. It gave her something to do that weekend, while she sat cross-legged on her sofa with a box of delivery pizza and a glass of wine. Indeed, there were a lot of names in the book, but when she investigated, she found that each and every target associated with the vigilante was listed in that book.

That couldn't be a coincidence. And if it wasn't, what was Moira Queen doing with a list of corrupt one per centers that were being targeted by the vigilante? Was she involved somehow? And what, if anything, did this have to do with Oliver?


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for being patient! This was a busy week for my beta (and for me too!). We're still following along rather closely with canon here as these two try to straddle the line.**

**Big thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for being such a fantastic beta reader!**

The holidays were drawing near, which meant all of her co-workers were busy with holiday parties and shopping and all of that. Felicity didn't celebrate Christmas, but it didn't make a difference anyhow because who would she celebrate with? She could go to Vegas and visit her mother but... no. She'd done that last year and had ended up sitting alone in her mom's apartment while she went out on dates and worked. With no wi-fi! She shuddered in remembrance.

It was dark in her little corner of IT. She was looking up some of the names on the list in that mysterious book, doing her own sniffing around and testing some features on the new tablet her department head had given her to use in place of her trusty laptop. Felicity was thrilled, glad that QC was finally joining the new millennium and embracing table technology. She was so engrossed with what she was doing that she didn't realize she had a visitor until that person spoke.

"Hey?"

She jumped, looking up to see Oliver standing before her desk, amused expression firmly in place. His smile (God, he was gorgeous) ruffled her nerves and she couldn't help snapping at him. "Don't you knock?"

If anything, his grin only grew wider. "Felicity. This is the IT department. It's not the ladies room."

Okay, he had a point. She relaxed a little and returned his smile, laughing a little at her own embarrassment. "Right," she said, shutting down the tablet for now and setting it aside. "What can I do for you?" Felicity looked up at him expectantly, almost excited to see what his next story to her might be.

"My buddy Steve is really into archery. Apparently, it's all the rage now," he told her, trying his hardest to look baffled by the phenomenon. Interesting, she thought. This played into her suspicions pretty smoothly, she thought. Wasn't he worried about tipping her off? She decided to play with him a little.

"Yeah, I don't know why," she replied dismissively. "Looks utterly ridiculous to me." She pressed her lips together as he hummed in agreement, but she very nearly cracked when she saw purposefully bland look on his face. He stared at her for a moment, and she was about to ask if she had something in her teeth when he looked down at the tub he held in his hands.

"Anyway, it's Steve's birthday next weekend and I wanted to buy him some arrows." Oliver took the lid off the end of the tube and pulled out a long, black arrow. "The thing is, he gets these special, custom-made arrows and I have no idea where he gets them."

Felicity swallowed, staring at the arrow he held out towards her. An arrow that potentially could have been used to kill someone. She'd heard about Adam Hunt in the papers, how he'd been killed by an archer. There was some disagreement if it was the vigilante or someone else. Another coincidence? Doubtful.

"I was hoping you could find out where this came from," Oliver continued, holding the arrow closer to her and for a moment, she was afraid to touch it. He looked serious now, hardly like someone who was birthday shopping for his buddy. She lifted a hand to take it from him and he pulled back slightly. "Careful."

"Yeah," she said and this time he placed the arrow in her outstretched hand before taking a seat before her desk. The arrow was lighter than the dark sheen of the shaft would have had her think. She studied it, from the sharpened arrowhead to the feathers at the other end. It was long, lethal, and obviously finely crafted. She was able to make out a patent number near the base.

"The shaft's composite is patented," she told him, opening up her browser. Felicity typed the number in and the information came up right away. "And that patent is registered a company called Sagittarius." She smiled smugly at him, handing him back the arrow, glad to feel she had a bit of an upper hand with him. "That's Latin, for The Archer."

"Really," he breathed, taking the arrow from her and carefully storing it back in the tube he'd brought with him. He didn't sound the least bit surprised by that nugget of information, she noted. Interesting. "Could you find out where and when this was purchased?"

Her smile grew bigger. This was what she did best, and damn her, she wanted to impress him. She returned to her computer and ran a search. "According to Sagittarius company records, that particular arrow was part of a bundle shipment. Two hundred units." That's a lot of arrows. She scribbled down the address that came up. "Sent to this address." She tore the paper off her notepad and handed it to him.

Oliver's smile returned in full force as he took the paper from her. "Felicity. You're remarkable," he told her. Pleasure coursed through her at his praise, even though she knew there was no intent behind it. Still, it felt good to hear it.

"Thank you for remarking on it."

Still smiling, Oliver got to his feet and grabbed the tube containing the arrow. He moved towards the door, not even going to say goodbye before he turned back and added, almost as an afterthought, "And Merry Christmas."

Ever since she'd been a little she'd had to correct people and apparently this afternoon was no different. "I'm Jewish," she blurted.

Oliver paused and turned back. He met her eye. "Happy Hanukkah." His voice was low, soft, sincere. She watched him leave, feeling a pang in her chest. The fact that he still seemed so unaffected was really getting to her. Maybe that night had only meant something more to her and she was being the foolish one?

God, would there ever be a time where she saw him or spoke to him where she didn't think about their night together? Knowing their relationship was impossible didn't seem to forestall any fantasies her mind concocted. And boy, over the last month or two, her mind had been busy. Every time she'd start to think that maybe she'd built up their one night stand somehow and that it hadn't been as earth shattering as she remembered, she'd see Oliver again and be reminded. Oh yes, he was that attractive. And oh yes, she still had the hots for him.

Dammit.

—

Things took a turn after Felicity's last meeting with Oliver. Shortly after, he'd had some sort of accident and ended up in the hospital. His injuries had been severe enough to make the local news and Felicity had called Walter to find out if he was okay, not being able to bear not knowing the facts a moment longer.

She was relieved when Walter assured her that while he was hurt fairly bad and would have a recovery ahead of him, Oliver was going to be fine. That relief didn't last long because it wasn't terribly long after she spoke to him that Walter disappeared. It wasn't another business trip and he wasn't at home with the flu; he was just gone. Considering the book with the names inside it and what Felicity was starting to suspect it was tied to, she was worried for her employer. Walter was a nice guy. He'd always been nice to her, at least. There'd been disappearances and all kinds of sketchy things going on around Queen Consolidated lately. The thought that her and Walter's curiosity might have resulted in something bad happening to him ate her up.

But she couldn't very well poke around, at least not obviously. Felicity felt exposed enough as it was and while she didn't like to think of herself as a coward, she didn't want to be the next employee to go missing. Then, weeks passed and there was no sign of Walter, no answers as to his whereabouts. Felicity began to wonder if maybe she shouldn't go to someone with her concerns, to see about getting some help. Didn't she owe that to Walter for the kindness he'd shown her? But who could she go to?

It was almost prophetic, then, when Oliver paid another visit to her cubicle. She was just digging into some chow mein for lunch at her desk when he came strolling in, all charming smiles and swagger. Flustered in his presence once more, she set her food aside and straightened her desk while she babbled a hello.

"And here I was beginning to think my days of being Oliver Queen's personal computer geek were coming to end." She beamed a smile at him.

"Is that your way of saying you missed me?" he asked, a playful edge to his voice.

Yes. "No. But if it works for you, go with it."

He huffed a laugh and she thrilled to see his smile. Felicity got the feeling he didn't smile very often which was a shame. It was such a gorgeous smile. On the other hand, she was a bit miffed to see him so cool and calm. He didn't seem affected by her and she envied his ability to so easily put their one night stand behind him. She couldn't look at him without picturing how he'd looked over her, his hips pounding into hers.

"So, a friend of mine is running a scavenger hunt," he began. She looked sharply at him, both surprised and unsurprised that he was trying yet another lame story on her. Scavenger hunt? Did people still do those? She doubted it. "And there's a case of Lafite Rothschild 1982 waiting at the end."

Shit. Red wine. Her great weakness. "Oh." She nearly moaned the syllable. How did he know? That was some serious wine, expensive as hell. A whole case of it? "I love red wine."

Oliver looked very interested in her reaction and his smile was downright predatory. Damn the man, he knew what he was doing. "But in order to find it, I first need to get through this." He held out a small black stick to her.

She accepted it, curious. "Security fob." As she uncapped the end, exposing the USB port, Oliver came around the desk to stand next to her. She tried not to notice his nearness too much. Felicity plugged the device into her computer and instantly, a window opened. It was a login screen. She tried a few keystrokes and the computer beeped at her. "It's pin protected," she told him. "The challenge response goes back to a company called Blackhawk Squad Protection Group."

Oliver was watching over her shoulder. "Yeah, my friend had his bodyguards set it up for him. Personally, I think it's cheating... but, whatever."

Felicity darted a glance at him and noticed his jaw was set. Yeah, he was definitely lying. Again. She tapped a few keys and a terminal window scrolled a bunch of data.

"This is a military grade cryptographic security protocol. Your friend really went to all this trouble?" She didn't bother to keep the skepticism out of her voice and she turned her head, smiling at him over her shoulder.

He didn't even look a little uncomfortable, to his credit. "The idle rich are hard to entertain."

Points to him, that's a good cover.

"Listen," he said. "You get through it, and one of those bottles of wine is yours." He was giving her his most charming smile and, god help her, it was working. Heat blossomed low in her belly. He tapped her shoulder with his finger as he straightened and moved towards the door. She looked down at where he'd touched her, oh so briefly, and then back up again, smiling a little in spite of herself.

After he left, she kept working at the encryption. Partly because he'd asked her and there was an amazing bottle of wine for her in the balance, and partly because this was yet another mystery that she had to unravel. Too late, she realized she should have maybe said something to Oliver about Walter's disappearance. Then again, if he was sticking to his playboy image, he probably wouldn't be able to help her out there.

Of course, that's assuming he's not wrapped up with the vigilante like she suspects.

It took the rest of her day and all her attention, but she finally broke through the encryption. She called Oliver on his cell phone to let him know she had it.

"What did you get?" he asked as soon as he answered. Hellos were so five years ago.

"I think your friend's bodyguard gave him the wrong security fob," she replied, playing along.

"Why's that?"

"Well, once I got past Blackhawk's authentication system, there wasn't anything about a scavenger hunt," she answered. Surprise, surprise. "Just a directory and... well, I think you stumbled onto or got me to stumble onto something pretty illegal."

Felicity did her best to keep her fear out of her voice. She wasn't scared, not really. But if he was going to have her breaking the law, the least he could do was stop lying to her. And stop dominating her dirty dreams at night.

"Define illegal," he said, his voice now hard and clipped.

"Oh, you know," she replied, going for easy and breezy, "robbing an armored car with grenade launchers and tear gas."

"Wha-what?" He sounded stunned. That surprised her; she'd expected he'd at least suspected what she'd find, but his reaction told her otherwise.

"Someone at Blackhawk was using their system to store detailed routes and schedules for each of the city's seven major armored car carriers. Including the three that have already been hit. Mr. Queen," she went on, purposefully getting formal with his name. "I think we should provide this information to the police. With it, they should be able to predict the next heist."

"Hold on," Oliver cut in and he sounded edgy. "Felicity... I don't want to get you in trouble with my friend. So, do me a favor. Forward that directory onto me and I'll get it to the police personally. Thank you."

The line went dead. No goodbyes either. Then, with more sinking dread, she realized no mention had been made of the wine. Felicity sighed, holding the phone away from her ear and looking at it ruefully. "So, no wine then." Typical. She should have known that elusive bottle of Bordeaux was too good to be true. Well. Maybe she'd think twice before helping Mr. Queen out again.

Oh, who was she kidding? That man had her wrapped around his finger and he knew it.

To Felicity's surprise, she heard from Oliver again rather soon. This time, she had no prior warning; he just appeared one day while she was up on the eighteenth floor. She'd been taking care of an executive's computer that had randomly stopped accepting application updates. A quick fix for her, to be sure. She was playing a little catch-up with a co-worker before heading to the elevators to get back to her IT department "cave" when Oliver called her name. She turned to see him with his bodyguard in tow.

He looked different than he had the last couple of times she'd seen him. Actually, the way he walked towards her reminded her a bit of how he'd acted in the club that one night; loose and a bit wobbly. Was he drunk?

"You look like something the cat dragged in," she remarked honestly, looking him up and down. Oliver sighed. "Not that there are cats in this building. Well, once a cat did get in, but a guard tased it. Smelled like fur and static in here for like a week."

He looked over her shoulder, his eyes blinking slowly, almost rolling back in his head, and she thought for a moment that maybe he was going to get sick. He cleared his throat, blinking again.

"Would you mind stepping away from the window for a moment? I have a little bit of a hangover."

Felicity pursed her lips. Ah, that explained it. Probably another late night at the club. A very small and selfish part of her wondered if he'd gone home with some girl, like he'd done with her. She moved around so that she faced the window instead of him and he seemed to relax. John Diggle stood silently by Oliver's side, his eyes carefully on her.

"Sounds like you need a bloody mary and a pretzel," she suggested. "Not the IT department."

"Actually, my buddy Kevin is starting an energy drink company," Oliver explained, reaching inside his jacket to pull something out. "He says it's fantastic for curing hangovers but I am very particular about what it is I put in my body."

"I've noticed," she murmured, before she could catch herself. Shit. Don't let him know you've been lusting after him all this time! "I said, not noticed. Right?"

Surprisingly, Oliver looked as though he wanted to laugh. That gorgeous smile of his spread across his face again, but he tamped it down as he looked down at what he'd brought out of his pocket. It was a double syringe. What?

"I'm trying to find his secret recipe. Could you please do a spectro-analysis of the sample and find out exactly where in the city it's made?" he asked, handing the syringe to her.

Alarms were going off in her head. Spectro-analysis? Since when did a philandering playboy like Oliver Queen even know what one of those was? Then, of course, there was the obvious question. She probably shouldn't even ask, but curiosity was getting the better of her. "If it's an energy drink," Felicity began, speaking carefully, "why is it in a syringe?"

Oliver looked up and to the left before replying. "I ran out of sports bottles."

Mr. Diggle next to him just stared at him for a moment before walking away towards the elevators. Even he knew a terrible lie when he heard it. Felicity bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud.

Oliver simply kept looking at her and he smiled again. Dammit, that was her weakness. "Okay," she mouthed, moving away from him to go begin the analysis.

Did he really think she was that stupid? Clearly not or he wouldn't keep coming to her for help. Or was there another reason that he kept finding reasons to visit her?

Felicity worked on the analysis, calling Oliver when she had the results. She tried not to look too hard into it when the results were not, in fact, that of an energy drink. Of course, she wasn't the least bit surprised. She hadn't really expected it to be.

And yet.

This man lied to her almost every time he saw her. That should have put her back up, been a good signal for her to run far and fast from him. Instead, she found herself thinking of the times he hadn't lied. At the club, and later at her townhouse. That hadn't been a lie. Whatever her romantic imaginings of that night were, she wasn't that deluded.

Plus, he'd come to her. The fact that he'd come with lies wasn't as important as the fact that he'd trusted her to help him at all. Trust. Felicity thought of Walter, who was still missing, and how she still had that book with the names in it. Oliver had come to her, needing her help, on more than one occasion. Why couldn't the road go both ways? She should be able to go to him for help, right?

It took her until the next day to work up the nerve to call him. She'd talked herself out of it a dozen times before she dialed his cell phone and asked if he could meet her. She didn't want to meet at QC. There was no telling who might be listening (maybe that was why Oliver had given her lies instead of the truth?). She didn't want to go to his home either. She'd seen photos of the Queen mansion in magazines and didn't think she could bear to meet him there either. She was going to be nervous enough as it was without having some enormous, intimidating castle to contend with.

In the end, Oliver suggested they meet at Big Belly Burger in the Glades, not far from his father's old steel factory where Oliver was currently renovating the space to become a nightclub. The burger joint was far more her speed.

Now, she just had to work up the nerve to share with him what she knew.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks to everyone for sticking with me. I know some of you have been impatient by the close following of canon in the early chapters (remember, I did warn you that would happen), but we're about where things are going to start diverging. It's not going to happen all at once, because that's not how Great Romance starts. Oliver and Felicity are an evolution, both on the show and this fic. But rest assured, it's coming!**

**I love this scene in the show. This is the first time that I realistically thought, "hey, there could be something between these two!" Plus it was just a beautiful scene to watch with all that rain and soft lighting.**

**Huge thanks for lunarsilverwolfstar for being my beta.**

Oliver sat at the window bar at Big Belly Burger, thinking over the events with the Count, his little sister's arrest and probation, Dig's suspicion of his mother... It seemed the harder he worked to right the wrongs of his father and protect his city, the more events spun out of his control. It was maddening and Oliver could feel the tension coiling within him. Now, Felicity wanted to meet with him and he wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea.

He'd tried to stay away from her. Each time he'd come to her for assistance over the last several months, it'd been harder and harder to act as though that one night stand had never happened. Oliver was still attracted to her, thought of her at the most inconvenient times. He'd purposefully pursued a relationship with Helena in hopes that it would help him move on from his and Felicity's night of passion. It had worked, briefly. But then things with Helena went bad and Oliver found that images of Felicity writhing underneath him in the throes of passion were never far from the forefront of his mind.

He wasn't even as bothered by Laurel and Tommy's relationship as he otherwise thought he might have been. Instead, all he felt was happiness that his friends were enjoying one another. All that time on the island he'd been so focused on getting back to Laurel, making everything up to her, and spending the rest of his life with her. Now... well... plans change sometimes, don't they?

Instead of being fixated on Laurel, however, he'd become fixated on Felicity. Whenever a technical problem came up, she came first to his mind. Oliver loved dropping in on her, bantering with her, watching her blush and fumble even while she flaunted her expertise to him. She hadn't once brought up their night together, even when he'd come to see her without Dig. Sure, the first time he'd brought Dig with him because he'd been scared of confronting that reality with her. But as time had gone on, he'd wanted to see that it had mattered to her as much as it had to him so he'd come to see her without Dig. And... nothing.

Then, yesterday, Dig had insisted on accompanying him when he'd asked her for the spectro-analysis. Of course, that was probably because Oliver was likely to keel over at any moment and succumb to the effects of the Vertigo. Still, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyhow if Dig hadn't been there. Felicity showed no more overt reaction to him than she had on any of his previous vista to her. She'd made that adorable slip-up, where she mentioned noticing his body, but that was just Felicity, wasn't it?

God, how did she make him feel like such a lovestruck fool? This wasn't him. He'd just about made up his mind not to visit her again when he'd gotten her call, asking for a meeting. Oliver supposed he could have refused, her but the notion hadn't even crossed his mind. Felicity wanted to meet with him? When and where, that's all he'd wanted to know.

He was sunk.

Right then, his concentration was diverted by the sight of a familiar small, blonde woman approaching on the other side of the fogged, damp window. He waved at Felicity as she looked his way and turned towards the door to watch her enter. She was bundled in a long, dark, woolen coat, her customary ponytail and glasses in place. She was fidgeting, looking unsure of herself, and was as pretty as he'd ever seen her.

"Hi," she greeted, her voice quiet.

Oliver struggled to appear at ease. "Hi."

She approached him, standing next to the stool he was perched on. "Thanks for meeting me. I was... nervous to come to your house," she explained, her fingers still tangling together as she radiated uncertainty. Oliver had a flash of her at his family's home, watching television with him, eating a meal in the dining room, joking with his sister, curled in his bed... It stunned him how much the idea appealed.

He couldn't hide his smile as he said, "Okay."

She licked her lips quickly and shifted her weight from foot to foot. Had he ever seen her this nervous? What was on her mind?

"The thing is, I've been debating whether or not to share this with you for weeks..."

Oliver blinked and regarded her seriously. So this wasn't about their night together. And if she'd been thinking about it for weeks, it wasn't about the Vertigo either. Very well, she had his attention.

"Can I trust you?" she asked, her eyes serious on his.

He leveled his gaze at her. Didn't she already know that she could? Isn't that why she'd called him? The confusion must have shown on his face because she sighed a little impatiently.

"I'm not an idiot. You've dropped some fairly ridiculous lies on me and yet... I still feel like I can trust you. Why is that?" she said, laughing a little. The look she gave him said that she knew exactly why that was. The darkening of her smoky blue eyes showed a hint of what he'd seen from her that night at the club, and afterwards. Maybe she hadn't forgotten after all. Maybe she was just as good at hiding what she was feeling as he was.

Oliver shifted again on his stool, leaning towards her, debating whether to play this serious or light. It unnerved him a bit how she so casually called out his lying to her. They had been ridiculous lies and he'd known it at the time, but a small part of him had still hoped he was getting something past her. Apparently not. It made him feel uneasy and anxious as he reviewed how to handle this. He was always better with light than he was serious...

"I just have one of those faces," he remarked, smiling leisurely at her, hoping to maybe charm her in a way he hadn't quite been able to yet. If she fell under his charm, she'd open up about what was bothering her, tell him what he wanted to hear, and perhaps even relinquish a bit of the upper hand back to him. She had too much control in their relationship, as it was.

Oliver watched as Felicity's smile faded from her face and she looked away from him. Her jaw tightened and he realized with regret that his old tricks weren't going to work on her. He'd known that from the start, of course, but this moment was so much more intimate than anything they'd shared outside of her bedroom. She saw through him like he was made of tissue paper. He wasn't quite sure how that made him feel.

"Sorry," he said earnestly. Felicity looked back to him, a stirring of hope now in her eyes. "Yes. You can trust me." God help him if he didn't mean every word.

Her expression lightened a little and she looked almost relieved. "Then, I have something to show you." She reached into her purse and drew out a small book. A book he recognized with a sinking feeling but hoped against all hope was something else entirely. She held it out to him and he stared at it for a second as though it might sprout teeth and bite him. Oliver looked up at her as she held it out, a million questions racing through his mind. If this was what he thought it was, how did she have it?

Reluctantly, he took the book from her outstretched fingers. Aware of her intense scrutiny on his face, he leafed through the book, and saw that it was exactly what he'd feared it would be. The pages were crisper, the ink looked almost fresh by comparison, but there was no mistaking that this was an exact replica of the book he'd gotten from his father. The very book containing a list of names that had come to signal his mission in life. His pulse thundered in his ears as he flipped through the pages.

"Have you ever seen this before?" Felicity asked. Her tone indicated that she believed he had. But Oliver had to hold onto something here; his world was crumbling around him.

"No," he lied, but he couldn't meet her eyes. Then, he asked the question whose answer he feared the most. "Where did you get it?"

"From your stepfather."

Oliver looked up sharply, saw no lie in her eyes. Walter? How in the hell did Walter have a copy of the list? How much more entrenched in this horror could his family get? "From Walter. Uhm..." He stumbled for words as the implications of this flashed through his mind. "Wh-where did he get it?"

Felicity was watching him, her expression so soft, so sympathetic that he almost wanted to cry out because he already knew the answer. Hadn't Dig been saying it and he'd been too stubborn to listen?

"He said he found it in your house. That... it belongs to your mother," she answered quietly.

There it was. His heart twisted in his chest and the air seemed to leave him all at once. His mother. His father. His own family was involved in all of this and Oliver was suddenly terrified to his core of discovering how deep and how far this all went.

"Walter thought she was hiding something." She shook her head. "Something more. And he wanted me to look into it, but then he vanished."

Oliver could see the anguish on her face, the concern and the nervousness. He'd known she worked with Walter on occasion and that Walter had always had the best things to say about Felicity. He hadn't realized that the respect she felt for him in return was just as solid. He hadn't even considered that the disappearance of his step-father would worry Felicity. Shit, he hadn't even known that his disappearance could mean danger for Felicity as well. That thought sent ice water coursing through his veins.

"I think this list might have cost Walter his life," she admitted, looking almost tearful. She spoke aloud the fear that had been brewing inside of him for the last six weeks since Walter's disappearance. If he was... dead... then it was likely that his mother was involved somehow. As the vigilante, he needed to deal with this. But how could he if it was his own mother responsible?

Oliver swallowed against the lump in his throat and looked up to see Felicity still watching him, her eyes soft and open as she watched him with obvious concern. Could he be selfish? Could he rely upon this amazing woman for comfort while his reality spiraled out of control around him?

—

Felicity had only the vaguest suspicions of what the book with the list of names could mean, but seeing the devastation on Oliver's face told her that whatever it meant, Oliver knew. The man couldn't lie to her to save his life and she'd seen past his "No" when she'd asked if she'd seen it before as easily as he had when he'd tried to tell her why the "energy drink" was in a syringe.

She wanted to ask the question that hung on her lips. "Are you the vigilante?" Her suspicions had haunted her for weeks now, her dreams even. After she'd made the call last night, she'd even dreamed that Oliver had come to visit her at her townhouse in full vigilante gear, bow in hand. He'd grabbed her arms, pinned her to the wall of her living room and kissed her, his hood still up and shadowing his eyes. Felicity had woken up, drenched with sweat and more turned on than she'd been since, well, since she'd had Oliver in her bed.

The look in Oliver's eyes, however, stopped her. This was the look of a man whose life was unraveling before him and she couldn't bring herself to heap her question (no, her knowledge) on his shoulders. His posture was bowed and his face was pale. Felicity set her purse down on the counter and moved towards him before she could second guess her instincts.

Carefully, slowly, so as not to startle him, she approached him and put her arms around him. It was awkward, especially when he stiffened under her touch. But Felicity persisted, curling her fingers into the hard flesh of his back and slowly, he started to relax. A moment later, his arms came around her and she was able to move closer, so that her body pressed up against his. He returned her hug and she rubbed at his back.

They stood like that for a few minutes until Oliver began to draw back and she released him. He averted his eyes from hers at first and she noticed some color high on his cheeks. Was he embarrassed? Why on earth would a hug embarrass him? Felicity stepped back and he looked up at her, his eyes surprisingly soft.

"Thank you. I really needed that."

"Not a problem. I'm always available for a hug," she remarked casually, but the instant the words left her lips, the memory of meeting him at that club came crashing back on her. She flashed to them in the back of a cab, hands all over each other. Doing a lot more than just hugging.

Oliver stilled and his eyes held hers for a long moment before he glanced down at her lips. "I appreciate it," he told her. "I don't have very many people offering that particular service for me."

Felicity's cheeks heated because she was no longer thinking about hugs. From the darkening of Oliver's blue eyes, he'd at least noticed her blush, if not followed the direction of her thoughts. Maybe he did think of that night. Surely not as frequently as she did, but maybe just now and then. Was he thinking about it now?

She glanced out the windows of Big Belly Burger and saw that the rain was coming down much harder now. She swallowed hard, wondering if she had the courage to say what she was going to say. "How did you get here?" she asked. She didn't see his driver/bodyguard anywhere.

"My motorcycle," he replied. He followed her gaze out the window and noticed the downpour. His cringe was visible.

"My car is right outside," she said, pointing in the direction of her Mini, where it was parked at the curb. "I could give you a ride home or..."

"Or?" he prompted and a smile flirted with the corner of his lips for the first time since she showed him the book.

Felicity shrugged, hoping to look nonchalant. "Or wherever else you wanted to go, of course."

Oliver paused for a long moment and looked out at the rain. The lights were soft on his face, smoothing the hard angles and planes. Felicity knew she was taking a risk by involving herself further with him, especially if he was the vigilante as she suspected he was. But at the same time, she couldn't bear to leave him alone tonight. Not with the news she'd given him, not when that news had made him look so desolate. Not when her company seemed to be soothing him a bit.

"All right," he said at last, turning his attention back to her. "Lead the way."

It was a quick dash from the doors of Big Belly Burger to her Mini. She squealed as she dove into the driver's seat and Oliver crammed his large frame into her passenger seat. He shook the rain from his short hair, causing it to sprinkle onto her and she squealed again, making him smile that grin that she already adored so much.

The rain was coming down even harder now and lightning flashed across the sky. Felicity cringed as she steered her car down the waterlogged street. Oliver's brow furrowed as he peered out the windshield at the downpour. "Your townhouse isn't far from here," he said.

"Just a few blocks over towards the river."

"Why don't you just take me there. I don't like the idea of you out on the roads like this and it's quite a ways to my house."

"Are you sure?" she asked, even as she thrilled at the idea of having him in her home again. Even if nothing... happened. But she already was hoping that something would.

He nodded. "Yep. Very sure."

Felicity drove towards her townhouse, chattering about the weather and how while this rain was decidedly inconvenient tonight, they really did need the precipitation. Starling City was in danger of pre-drought conditions, the rainfall amounts so far this year had been lower than average. Of course, she didn't really think there was any real danger of that because it was always raining in Starling, it seemed, and made other cities look like they were located in the heart of the Sahara by contrast. Oliver just smiled amusedly at her while she went on and on.

God, Felicity, just shut up. He doesn't care about the weather.

Luckily, it was a quick drive to her townhouse and there was a spot open right in front of the steps up to her door.

"Got your keys out?" Oliver asked, his hand on the door release.

She jangled them. "Yep."

"Okay. On the count of three. Ready?"

"Ready."

"One... two... three!"

At his count, she flung herself out of the car and dashed towards the door of her townhouse, trying in vain to avoid the thick, heavy raindrops. Oliver beat her there and urged her on as she jammed the key into the lock and pushed inside. They collapsed against the wall in her entry way, gasping and laughing. She caught his eye as their laughter tapered off and couldn't help her thoughts from veering into unsafe territory. Oliver straightened, stepping back and looking uncertain, and Felicity could have kicked herself for making it weird.

"Why don't I fix us some tea while we wait out the storm?" she suggested. Tea was safe, wasn't it?

He nodded, looking down.

"You go have a seat in the living room. I'll be there in a minute."

Oliver walked into the living room while Felicity slipped off her coat and hung it up in the hall closet and then ducked into her kitchen to gather what she needed to make them some tea. She heard the television click on while she set the kettle on the stove to boil.

A few minutes later, she walked into the living room carrying a tray loaded with cups of tea, a bowl of sugar, and a little pitcher of milk. Oliver was sitting on her sofa, his jacket off and draped over the back of the sofa. Her television was tuned to some syndicated sitcom but she saw that he wasn't really watching it. He was staring at the TV without seeing and his jaw was set, his eyes dark.

Felicity set the tray on the coffee table carefully before sitting next to him. His eyes flicked to her briefly before he looked out the windows of her living room at where the rain was lashing against the side of the house.

"Are you okay?" she asked, even though the answer was clear.

Oliver heaved a sigh and sat forward to fix his tea. She watched as he dumped in several spoonfuls of sugar and a healthy splash of milk. He was silent for so long that she thought he wasn't going to answer her. But then, he took a sip of his tea and cleared his throat. "I don't know what to do," he said quietly.

Felicity didn't have to ask about what. She thought about the book, currently tucked inside the pocket of his jacket. What could she say, though, without adding on any pressure? She pushed aside the urge to tell him that she thought he was the vigilante. All she could really do was be here for him, listen to him, offer comfort.

She put a hand on his knee, intending to lend him some of that comfort. "You'll figure it out. I know you will."

He looked up at her and the expression in the blue depths of his eyes was that of despair. "What if I can't? It's... my mother. I thought I was just... but if she's involved... what will I do, Felicity?"

Tears pricked at her eyes at the hopelessness in his voice. "Then you'll do what's right," she replied, feeling down to her bones that it was the truth.

As he gazed at her she was sure she could see the spark of desire flicker in his eyes. It was an expression she hadn't seen since their night together and she'd thought she'd never see it again. She couldn't just be imagining it, could she? Heat began to spread through her and she felt torn between wanting to launch herself at him and wanting to run and shut herself in her room.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

Oliver shook his head. "I don't want to talk. Just... I need you here." He stroked her cheek with his fingers.

So she wasn't imagining it, then. Whether this was some remnant of their night together or Oliver just wanted to forget his troubles, there was no mistaking that he wanted her. Felicity held his eye as she tried to decide how she felt about this. Could she risk her heart even further by pushing the boundaries of their association again? In situations like this, she tended to go with her gut and her gut was screaming at her to give him this. He wanted it. She wanted it. Plus, there would be no better way to take his mind off his troubles. Carefully and with steady hands, she removed her glasses, folded them and set them on the table next to the tea tray.

"I know a way to help you, Oliver," she told him, sliding off the sofa and onto her knees on the carpet. His darkening gaze told her he understood immediately what she meant. So much for their professional relationship.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the cliffie last time! I had my reasons. And I'm sorry if this chapter doesn't live up to your hopes and expectations but I have a long-game plan here. These two are on the cusp of something and if I can draw out their denial a little longer, it'll work out better in the end. ;)**

**This also marks the the beginning of the true divergence from canon. Everything that has transpired between these two will affect how the next chapter plays out.**

**Thanks for being patient! My beta unexpectedly had some computer troubles this last week so it delayed her being to look over my chapter. I want to thank lunarsilverwolfstar for going above and beyond for me and this fic. :)**

Felicity took the mug of tea from his fingers, setting it on the tray before she slid off the sofa and onto her knees in front of him. Oliver watched her intently as she pressed his knees apart and moved in between them.

"Felicity... you don't..." he began, his voice choked. He cut himself off, unable to continue with the thought. How many times had he envisioned her brightly painted mouth on his cock? Still, he didn't want to be that guy. She deserved better than that.

"I want to," she admitted. "Please. You don't have to talk about what's bothering you but I'd like to help you."

"Felicity..." He was feeling lightheaded, the blood rushing south towards where he was already hardening in anticipation.

"You have to admit, this would take your mind off of it," she pointed out with a saucy grin. He smiled at that.

"You're remarkable," he murmured.

"You've already told me that."

Felicity reached for the buckle of his belt. Oliver stilled, watching her as she opened the belt and then the button of his jeans. His heart was pounding in his chest as she took hold of his zipper and drew it down. Then, she moved away from his waistband to remove his boots and set them aside. He watched her movement intently, the anticipation drawing out like a tight bowstring between them. She returned to his opened jeans and reached inside to wrap her fingers around his half-erect cock within his boxer briefs. She stroked the thickening length firmly, feeling the size and dimension of it with her fingers while he shuddered helplessly.

Oliver let his head fall back onto the sofa cushion, his eyes slamming shut but he forced himself to open them so he could fix her with his gaze. He let her see his appreciation and a smile bloomed across her lips as she reached for the waistband of his jeans and his boxer briefs, tugging them down. He lifted his hips to assist her and she pulled the garments down past his knees and off, setting them aside.

Felicity turned her attention back to him, more specifically, to his erection, and licked her lips as she regarded it. He hadn't really given her a chance the last time get a good look and she was taking advantage of the opportunity now. Oliver couldn't deny the surge of pride he felt as she regarded his cock. He wondered if she was remembering what it felt like when he moved inside of her.

She stroked him lightly with her fingers, feeling the veins along his shaft, tracing the shape of the head, and running her finger across the slit at the top. Oliver groaned, low and needy. Felicity thankfully took pity, grasping the base of his shaft with one hand and leaning forward to lick up his length before enveloping the swollen tip in her mouth. Oliver clenched his fists at his sides, the muscles in his forearms standing out as he strained not to grab ahold of her and thrust.

Felicity swirled her tongue around, teasing the head of his cock and dipping into the slit. Then, she met his eyes as she lowered down, moving to take more of him into the warm velvet of her mouth. Sweet Jesus. That felt fucking good. Her lips pressed down on his flesh as she pulled back and then surged forward. His eyelashes fluttered but he couldn't look away.

"Fuck," he gasped.

Her hand moved in tandem with her lips, squeezing and pumping the base of his cock as she sucked and licked. With her other hand, she traced up his leg and across his thigh. Desire gathered, pulsing and insistent, focusing now on the nerves in his cock.

Oliver swore again, his hips straining to thrust towards her. Felicity continued to work him like this, concentrating on her suction and the slide of her tongue against his hard flesh. Some of her hair escaped her ponytail, falling down to brush against her cheek as she moved on him. Oliver reached over and tucked the errant lock behind her ear for her right about the time she gave him a particularly hard suck.

He groaned and his hand hovered uncertainly next to her head for a moment. She gave him a little nod of permission and a moment later he had his fingers buried in her hair, holding her ponytail. He didn't want to force her head, but he had to hold her somehow. She rewarded his gentleness by moving her mouth down his shaft, taking him into her throat, until her lips reached the base. Then... she swallowed.

"Fuck!" Oliver swore.

A coiling pressure which had been building at the base of his spine threatened to explode out of him. He didn't want to startle her, but he couldn't quite form the words to warn her of his impending orgasm as she continued to swallow around his cock. All he could do was make inarticulate, strangled moans. Felicity must have sensed he was close; she sped up her movements, her other hand gently squeezing his balls as she moved her throat around his cock.

She hummed, the vibrations traveling down his cock and Oliver knew he was gone. His muscles tightened as he felt his release burst forth from his balls and travel up his shaft. He couldn't help his hips from pumping as he came deep into her throat. Felicity swallowed around him, still humming as she took everything he gave her.

She released him with one last long lick to his softening length before sitting back on her heels. Oliver gazed at her, the soothing effects of his orgasm still pulsing through him, and thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known. Her hair was a bit mussed, her cheeks were pink, and her eyes were glittering as she smiled almost bashfully at him.

"Felicity," he breathed, trying to get his heart to stop pounding. "Wow..."

She blushed and turned her head away. Was she embarrassed? The thought that she might be made his heart twist. Before she could move away, he grabbed her and lifted her into his lap.

"Thank you," he murmured against her lips before he kissed her. She melted into him, her hands going to his face and his hair as he pushed his tongue into her mouth, tasting himself there. Arousal and gratitude and about a dozen other feelings fought for dominance as he gentled his kiss, his tongue stroking languidly and his lips massaging hers. Oliver realized he could kiss her for hours, finally indulging himself after spending so many weeks without seeing her, and then he would see her... The shape and color of her lips would beckon to him and torment him and he'd wonder...

Now he knew though, didn't he? He'd never be able to look at her mouth again without picturing how her cherry lips looked wrapped around his cock.

Desire pulsed through him and Oliver wanted nothing more than to bury himself between her thighs. He wanted to show her the pleasure that she showed him and he was nearly surprised with the fervor he felt. Despite his general prowess in his younger days, oral sex has never been something he was very good at. Tommy used to tease him mercilessly about it, in fact, because he had quite the reputation with the ladies for his talents with his tongue. He'd done it with Laurel a few times but she'd always preferred his fingers or his cock. His attentions had always been directed elsewhere and he'd never had a particular fetish for doing it. But now... he was starting to revise his stance because he desperately wanted to know what Felicity tasted like. He'd had the thought fleetingly in the weeks since their night together and now that she'd given him such an amazing blow job, the need to bring her a similar sort of pleasure was intense.

Smoothly, he changed positions, pushing back and turning so that she was pressed to the sofa underneath him. He continued to ravage her mouth, unable to get enough of the taste of her but needing to proceed. Tearing his lips from hers, he began to move down her neck, sucking lightly on her skin as he moved down. Felicity was still completely clothed, having just shucked her coat. She wore a dark sweater vest over a pink button down that he thought he recognized from their first meeting. Oliver thanked his lucky stars as he moved down her body and saw she was wearing a skirt. That made his job a lot easier.

Oliver moved lower and began to pull the hem of her skirt up. His fingers had just grazed the skin of her thighs when his mobile phone began to buzz and trill from his jeans pocket. Cursing softly, he sat back and pried the phone out of his pocket. One glance at the screen showed him it was Thea calling. He thumbed the screen and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Ollie!" Thea's voice shouted. "Where the hell are you! I thought you were gonna pick me up from CNRI at seven!"

Oliver looked at his watch and saw that it was 7:15. He winced. "I'm so sorry, Speedy. I completely forgot."

"You forgot?! After all that hassle about picking me up and you forgot?!"

Oliver ignored her. "It's too rainy to get you on my bike, I'll grab a cab and be there as soon as I can. Are you alone?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Felicity pick up a tablet from her side table and tap away.

"No, Laurel's still here." There was a pause on the line. "She says she'll wait with me till you get here."

"Great. I'm on my way."

Oliver hung up and got to his feet, slipping the phone back in his pocket. He held out a hand to help Felicity get to her feet as well. She was blushing to the roots of her hair and God help him if it wasn't the most adorable thing he'd seen in a long while.

"I'm sorry, I've got to go. I forgot I told Thea I'd pick her up from CNRI tonight."

She smiled and shrugged. "I understand. I called a cab for you from the tablet," she said, gesturing at the tablet which she'd set back on the table.

Oliver blinked. "You can do that?"

"Anyone can do that, Oliver. It's 2013."

He chuckled as he pulled on his jacket. "I feel like we got interrupted here."

Felicity followed him as he walked to her door. She met his eyes and said, "I wanted this to be about you, not about me."

"It hardly seems fair. After what you did..." Oliver blew out a breath. His nerve endings were still firing from that orgasm.

"I was happy to do it," she assured him. "You needed someone to do something for you. How often does that happen?"

"You're asking a guy who has someone make his bed every day."

She gave him a look. "That's not what I meant. I mean emotionally."

Oliver shifted uncomfortably. She made a good point. Felicity moved past him to look out the small window next to her front door.

"Your cab is here. Go. Get your sister."

"All right," he agreed, though with some reluctance. He stepped up to the door, but before he opened it, he turned back. He cupped a hand to her jaw and bent down, brushing his lips over hers. "Thank you."

She smiled a little. "Take care out there, Oliver."

Oliver ran out to the waiting cab, climbing into the backseat and shaking the drops from his hair and sleeves. He looked back to Felicity's door, to see her standing there, her hair falling out of her ponytail and her cheeks still pink. She waved at him and he waved back, already wishing he was back in her house, in her arms.

"Where to, sir?" the cabbie asked.

Oliver sat back against the seat and sighed before giving the driver the address for CNRI. The car pulled away from the curb and Oliver couldn't help but feel he was not only walking away from something amazing tonight, but also dodging a bit of a bullet. As the cab negotiated the sodden streets of Starling City, Oliver thought about what indulging in another night with Felicity would mean.

He felt guilty enough these days about their one night stand, considering how he'd come to respect her and the help she always gave him without question. She deserved more than that. She deserved more than him. If he'd stayed with her, it wouldn't have been eating her out or fucking her or even just snuggling in her bed. It would have been bigger than either of them were ready for. God knows, Oliver had no idea how to be in any kind of committed relationship. And that was just what a woman like Felicity deserved.

If he'd stayed with her, he would have made love to her. That's what it would have been, not a one night stand, then she'd be tied to him. Shit, he was having a hard enough time letting her go as it was. He couldn't do that to her, draw her into his fucked up world with his fucked up family. Felicity was worth so much more than that. No, the best thing he could do was get out of her life.

The cab pulled up in front of CNRI and Oliver bounded out after telling the cabbie to wait while he retrieved his sister. He found Thea inside, leaning against a desk and talking with Laurel.

"I'm so sorry, Speedy. I don't know where my mind has been," he said. Total lie. He knew exactly where his mind has been. It's been one of those weeks and it was only going to get worse.

Thea fixed him with a dry expression that reminded him startlingly of their mother. "My hero." She gathered her purse and put her jacket on, and Oliver smiled at Laurel while he waited.

"Thanks for staying with her," he said.

Laurel shrugged a shoulder. "It was the least I could do. I let Tommy know I'd be late getting home," she said.

The pain he expected to feel hearing about her and Tommy's domestic situation never came and that surprised him. Was he getting over Laurel? All he felt was... happiness for his two best friends. Both of them deserved someone to make them happy, after all.

They both said goodbye to Laurel and headed out into the rain to the waiting cab for the long ride back to the Queen mansion. Oliver found he didn't quite mind Thea's pestering him about what kept him so busy that he'd forgotten she needed a ride, as it kept his mind off the book Felicity had given him and what that meant moving forward with his vigilante business.

"You were on a booty call, I know it," his sister proclaimed.

"Thea."

"Old habits die hard, big brother."

"What if I was having a business meeting?" he asked.

"Were you?"

He fought a blush and Thea chortled with laughter.

"See! I knew it. What's her name?"

"It's not important. I don't think I'll be seeing her again." The pain that accompanied that statement was swift.

Thea's face fell. "Oh, Ollie. You don't have to do that, you know. You're a grown man now. You don't have to just have one night stands anymore."

Oliver sighed. If only it were that simple.

—

Felicity spent the rest of her evening catching up on television shows on her DVR and eating popcorn. She tried very hard not to think about Oliver.

Logically, she knew the phone call from his sister had been a saving grace. If he'd stayed, she would have let him do anything with her, to her, for her. And she would have done anything for, to, and with him. She'd been splayed open by passion by that man, for the second time, and the reality of that shook her. This wasn't who she'd fought to become since she'd left Las Vegas at eighteen.

Felicity was a strong, independent woman who ruled her own destiny. Too many times she'd had her heart broken, been disappointed, been left behind by someone. Usually a man. It usually left her hollow, too. When she'd come to Starling City, she'd promised herself she wouldn't allow that to happen again. Everything had been fine until she'd met Oliver Queen.

Their night together had been amazing in a way Felicity had never expected. She'd naively assumed it would be some hot sex and then Oliver would sail out of her life and into someone else's. Instead, memories had bombarded her until Oliver had shown back up at her job, asking for more help. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get that man out of her life or our of her mind.

If he'd stayed tonight, she knew that it would have made things so much worse for her. He would leave, because that's what men do, and she'd be left picking up the shattered pieces of her heart.

So she was grateful to Thea Queen for calling and pulling Oliver away. The teenage girl had unknowingly saved them both since clearly when they were in each other's presence they were no good at saving themselves.

Felicity also hadn't forgotten that she believed Oliver to be the vigilante. If that didn't add a wrinkle to any relationship with him, nothing else would. Fantastic sex is one thing, but she didn't do casual relationships very well and men like Oliver, vigilante or not, did not give up their lifestyle for a girl like her.

She'd spent several hours giving herself this pep talk over and over when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was her friend Stacy, she answered right away.

"Hey you. Isn't it a bit late?"

"It's only midnight here," she replied. "I just got back from the club. I left early because it was a slow night and the place was full of douchebags. I thought this would be a great time to pin you down and have an actual conversation lasting more than two minutes!"

Felicity winced as she turned off her television so she could better focus on the conversation. Stacy had been trying to get her on the phone for months now and she felt like the worst friend for not making more time to reconnect with her.

"Well, you've got me now. How are things at Wayne Enterprises?"

Stacy filled her in on her professional life and Felicity noticed she was careful not to reveal anything that might be construed as a company secret. She understood completely. When Stacy asked how Queen Consolidated was, Felicity kept her remarks to commentary about her co-workers and what the coffee in the break room tasted like (sludge, of course).

"Now tell me about that guy you went home with," Stacy prompted after Felicity got finished talking about the new tablet she was working with.

She groaned. This was what she'd been afraid of. Ever since that night at the club and the picture she'd texted to Stacy, her friend had been after her for details.

"There's nothing to tell."

"Bullshit. The only reason anyone ever says that is when there's everything to tell."

"I could probably argue that. Remember Antonio?"

Stacy made a frustrated sound on the other end of the line. "You had to bring him up. That was a very specific case of the wrapping not matching what was underneath."

"You chased that man for months."

"Total waste of time. Talk about underwhelming in the sack." Stacy sighed. "So you're saying that was the case with your mystery man?"

"No," Felicity replied before she could catch herself.

"So then tell me. What was his name?"

"I- I can't tell you."

"Oh?" Her friend sounded intrigued. "Is he famous?"

"Stacy..."

"Alright. Don't tell me his name. Was he good in bed? He was, wasn't he? You wouldn't be this cagey if he was another Antonio."

"He was great. It was an amazing night. But it was a one night stand. There's not much to discuss."

"Huh. I feel like there's something you're not telling me."

God. Was there ever. "It was a great night but that was months ago, Stacy."

"And no relationships on the horizon with anyone? Surely there's some eager IT guy trying to woo you."

Felicity had a fleeting thought of that one guy a few cubicles down from her... Jerry? Terry? What was his name again? "Nope." Then she thought about Oliver with his brooding expressions and the smile that would suddenly transform him. "Not in IT at least."

"Oh? Someone outside IT? Tell me the details, girl!"

Oh shit. Felicity knew enough of Stacy that she wouldn't let this bone go now that she had a good handle on it. "He doesn't think of me like that, Stace."

"Well, then he's a fool. You are grade-a, Felicity Smoak, and any guy who doesn't notice that is an idiot."

She had to smile. Stacy was always her greatest defender. "Thanks. You are the best, you know that?"

"Of course. Now if you could only convince Tom Hiddleston of that so he'd fall madly in love with me, I'd be set," her friend quipped.

Felicity hung up the phone at the end of their conversation, feeling much better than she had. She was more than good enough for Oliver Queen. It didn't change the fact that getting involved with him and all of his many issues was a bad idea, but she felt better knowing that, at least for her, their lack of relationship wasn't because she didn't measure up. As Felicity turned her favorite show back on the television, she made a mental note to give Stacy a call the next time her ego was suffering and she needed a boost.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for the great response and thanks for being patient!**

**This is where things start to really diverge from canon as far as how I follow the plot of season 1. Still, the shift is subtle as I try to ease into this "new normal". The big difference here is that Felicity makes a big decision differently than she did in the show.**

**I beta'd this one myself since my darling beta is still having computer troubles. I apologise right now for any mistakes!**

Oliver was having a shitty time. After bringing Thea home, Oliver had spent the rest of the night in his bed at the Queen mansion, staring at the ceiling and cursing at himself. The urge to return to Felicity's house and finish what they'd started was nearly overwhelming.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Felicity's lips around his cock, the look in her grey-blue eyes as she swirled her tongue and squeezed her fist and brought him such a heady mix of comfort and pleasure until he wasn't able to tell the difference between the two. Then, he hadn't even been able to return the favor. God help him, he'd wanted that more than he'd wanted anything in a very long time.

But he'd made a decision. With everything going on in his life, the very fact that he couldn't even trust his own _mother_, she was better off without him. Oliver told himself it would hurt less for him if he just made a clean break. In fact, he railed against the notion that it would hurt at all. They'd just had a one night stand, she'd helped him out with some vigilante business, and she'd provided him with some comfort on her own terms. There was absolutely nothing to get hurt over.

Somehow, that felt like as bad a lie as storing an energy drink in a syringe.

The next couple of days didn't go any better. Laurel was targeted and kidnapped because of her affiliation with his vigilante persona, giving Oliver a whole new bushel of guilt to add to the ever-growing pile. As for his mother... as much as Oliver had wanted to believe she couldn't possibly be involved in whatever it was his father had been involved in, the copy of the list Felicity had given him and Dig's insistence on looking into her dealings meant that Oliver couldn't ignore it.

Which was how he found himself en route to Queen Consolidated, kitted out in his hood with his bow at the ready, mentally psyching himself up to intimidate his own mother. He wished there was another way but he had to know what his mother knew about Walter's disappearance and this mysterious "Undertaking" he'd heard about on the recording Dig had acquired. But even as he gained entrance to the Queen Consolidated building and stealthily made his way up to the roof, Oliver hoped that she wasn't responsible, that she was merely just a pawn in someone else's scheme. She was his _mother_.

Oliver anchored the line he intended to swing on, glad that it was night and that his mother had a tendency to work so late. This would have been a lot more difficult to get away with during the day. She was in a meeting, he knew, in the executive offices on the 39th floor. He would swing in through the window, taking everyone by surprise, subdue anyone who tried to challenge him, and then confront his mother on the other end of his bow. Sweat trickled down his back, despite the cool late winter night.

The swing went perfectly according to plan. Oliver flung a small bolt from his wrist quiver at the window, weakening it, before his body swung towards the plate glass and crashed through. As he'd expected, the room beyond erupted into chaos. A few of the executives Moira had been meeting with fled immediately, the others he easily knocked out, leaving him with his mother.

She was shaking as he turned his bow on her, shooting an arrow at her desk lamp to plunge the room into further darkness and shouting at her in his modified voice that she had failed this city. His mother reached for something on her desk, probably her phone and Oliver fired another arrow, purposefully missing her but causing her to jump back.

"Stand still!" he yelled, nocking another arrow.

"Please don't kill me!" she gasped, her hands up, backing towards the wall behind her.

Oliver questioned her about Walter's disappearance and she convincingly protested that she knew nothing. He wished he could believe her, but he'd heard her deny things that ended up being true. Oliver switched tacks, asking her about the Undertaking and she seemed startled at the word. On a gasp, she turned to the table behind her and grabbed a larger framed picture, holding it in front of her like a shield.

It was a picture of him and Thea. "I'm a mother!" she cried. "I have a son, Oliver. A daughter, her name is Thea." She was crying now and Oliver's conscience prickled at him.

How could he have thought he could confront her as he did any other crooked one per center in Starling City? Light from the city beyond the windows made the tears in her eyes glitter.

"She's just a teenager. Please don't take me from my children," his mother pleaded. "They've lost their father. They can't lose me too."

She continued to beg, repeating the word "please" over and over. Oliver let his bow drop. What the hell was he doing here, caught up in this mess with his mother. He was in no shape to be confronting her.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he told her.

But she'd made no such promise. In a flash, she dropped the picture she'd been gripping with white fingers and turned to a drawer behind her, pulling out a loaded pistol and firing it at him. Oliver dove to the floor, trying to avoid the sudden hail of bullets but he felt one rip into his shoulder as he slammed into the hard marble of the floor.

She'd shot him! His mother had shot him! He could hear her scrambling on the other side of the desk, probably reaching for the phone that had been knocked off her desk from the arrow he'd fired earlier. He had to get out of there _now_.

His shoulder protested, pain slicing through his nervous system as he hauled himself up and towards the elevators while he heard his mother calling for help.

Oliver slumped against the side of the elevator, trying not to leave any more blood than he already had on the floor of his mother's office. His vision danced before his eyes and he got off several floors before the lobby, detouring to the parking garage elevator. Another ride and he was on the third floor of the QC parking garage. Spots danced before his eyes as he gripped the wall. Where now? If he'd had a phone or something on him, he could have called Dig to come get him but would he show up in time?

He shuffled through the parking garage and up ahead, he spotted a familiar sight. It was a little red Mini Cooper, parked away from the other vehicles and beckoning him like light in the storm. _Felicity_. Oliver staggered towards the car. He knew with a gut-certainty that she would help him.

As if on cue, he heard the elevator clatter, signaling an arriving car. It was quick work with a tool in his pocket to get the back door open and he crammed himself into the backseat. He got the door pulled shut behind him at the same time he wondered just how badly this latest scheme of his was going to scare her.

Felicity sighed as she stepped out of the parking garage elevator. Another late night at work, which was just fine by her. There was nothing at home anyhow and the work kept her mind busy. When her mind wasn't busy, she thought too much about Oliver Queen and how his problems had somehow become her problems. She also thought about him at her apartment the other night and the things she'd done to him. And the things she was sure he'd been about to do to her.

Nope, better not to think about that.

Best thing for tonight was to eat some mint chip ice cream and watch some bad reality television. As she hurried towards her car, she was more and more excited to begin her solitary evening. She could almost taste the ice cream already.

Felicity settled behind the wheel and twisted around in her seat to look behind her as she backed up. That was when she noticed the very large, very _green_ lump in her back seat. A lump that was groaning.

That lump was the vigilante. Felicity's heart leapt into her throat as the voice underneath the lowered hood ground out, "I'm not going to hurt you, Felicity."

"I know you won't, Oliver. What are you doing in my backseat?"

He pushed his hood back, displaying his eyes wide with surprise and circled with dark green greasepaint. She noticed then the dark red stain on his shoulder, a red stain that was growing and spreading.

"You knew it was me?" he gasped. Sweat stood out on his face, pale with pain and blood loss.

Now was so not the time to be getting into that minefield. "Oliver, you're shot! What happened? Let me get you to the hospital!"

He shook his head, wincing. "No," he gasped. "Please. Just take me to my father's old steel factory in the glades."

"But-"

"Please, Felicity. I need you to do this. Do not take me to a hospital."

He laid back on the seat, groaning and looking even paler than before. Panic stole through her and she hurriedly backed out of her spot before steering out of the parking garage.

She understood completely why he didn't want a hospital, though she was fearing for his life. He'd gone still in her backseat, though when she'd turn her head to check, she could see his chest rising and falling and his eyes were blinking. If he died because she failed to bring him to the emergency room, she would never forgive herself.

But if word got out that billionaire playboy Oliver Queen was actually the hooded vigilante the police had been chasing for months now, he could end up in prison. Or worse. She could never forgive herself for bringing that upon him either. She would have to trust him then, that he knew what he needed.

"Hang in there, Oliver," she murmured as she navigated the streets towards the old steel factory in the glades.

"Find... Dig. In the basement," he gasped.

"Shh, try not to talk. Save your energy," she instructed.

Felicity couldn't bear the silence, the sound of his labored breathing, so she started to babble. She didn't talk about anything of substance, just about her plans for mint chip and reality tv and how Sherri who worked in IT with her was dating a guy from accounting. She did it to keep herself calm and it almost worked.

"That's gotta be strange right? Dating someone you work with? I mean, it's different departments which is almost like two different jobs. I don't know if QC has any policies on dating. I should probably look that up for her. But then again, Sherri probably already knows. She's not the sort that would deliberately fudge the rules."

Things in the backseat had gotten awfully still and Felicity chanced another glance at him. He looked as though he'd lost consciousness. At least, she hoped that's what it was. _Oh God, please don't be dead._

Felicity turned a corner and saw the dark, imposing outline of the abandoned steel factory looming before her. The chain link gate was open and it looked like construction had been going on here. A car was parked off to the side and Felicity pulled in next to it. Her hands were shaking as she jumped out of the driver's seat and threw open the rear door.

"Oliver! Are you alive? Please say you're alive!" she cried. She leaned in, her hands fluttering over him, unsure what to do.

She pressed a couple fingers to his neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there, barely. She tried to move him, her chest pressing into his and the blood on his shoulder soaking into her chest and the edges of her cardigan. He barely budged and she worried that she'd do more damage trying to move him.

"Dig, in the basement," she murmured, remembering the last thing Oliver had said to her. Hopefully, Dig would have a way to move Oliver out of her backseat because there was no way she was going to be able to budge him. Felicity ran a shaking hand over his cheek, alarmed at how cool and pale he was. "I'm going to go get help. Don't die, Oliver."

Then, she ran into the old factory, using an entrance that apparently the construction crew was using. Tarps lay everywhere and Felicity saw evidence of fire damage. Something about that jogged her memory but she didn't have time to think of it now. Quickly, she found a door and opened it, seeing a staircase leading down underground. That had to be the basement. She noted a keypad next to the door that wasn't engaged. Poor security, she mused before she clattered down the stairs.

The basement was a dank, dark cave and she saw a man in a blue dress shirt siting at a desk, watching a news report on one of the computer monitors. She recognized him; it was John Diggle, Oliver's bodyguard.

"Excuse me!" she called out as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

John whipped around, gun already out and trained on her, his eyes wide. Clearly, the last person he expected to see down there was her.

"Can you help me? He's... really heavy."

Thankfully, the bloodstains on her shirt must have spoken for themselves and perhaps John recognized her from the visits to Queen Consolidated. Either way, he leapt into action. She lead him to her car and tried to assist in whatever way she could as he easily lifted Oliver's still form and carried him back into the factory. She mostly held doors and babbled about how she'd found him in the backseat of her car at Queen Consolidated and how he'd told her to bring him here.

John sprang into action as soon as he got Oliver laid out on an exam table in the basement of the foundry. He instructed her to hold a towel to the bleeding wound in his shoulder while he began pulling out all sorts of equipment. It became clear that Oliver, while a terrible liar, knew how to properly prepare and he had plenty of his own blood on hand for just this sort of situation. She fought to hide her reaction to all the blood that was already dripping onto the table underneath Oliver's shoulder and followed John's instructions as he worked to save Oliver's life.

All told, Felicity was a pretty good assistant as John carefully extracted the bullet and sewed up the wound. The heart rate monitor displayed an elevated heart rate but it seemed strong and steady and that went a long way towards settling her jangled nerves.

Since she'd found Oliver bleeding in the backseat of her car, she hadn't let herself stop to think about the reality of the situation. First, there was the simple fact that this was confirmation that he was, in fact, the vigilante. Of course, she'd already known this, known it deep in her soul, but there was something about having her knowledge justified. All along, she'd not just been helping Oliver Queen out with his strange tech related issues, but she'd been aiding the vigilante. How did she feel about that? This was the man the police and the local papers were calling nothing more than a murderer and a criminal. Yet... she'd been paying attention to the news and reading between the lines. He was doing some good, even if his technique lacked some finesse. Now that his persona was out in the open with her, she wondered if he'd continue to come to her for help. She wondered if she would still be willing to provide that help.

Then there was the fact that the man she'd had a one night stand with, the man that she had more feelings for than she cared to admit, nearly bled out and died. Even now, as he rested with the heart monitor beeping reassuringly, her own heart pounded at the idea that he could have died.

While they waited for Oliver to wake up, and to make sure that he didn't crash (again), she and John talked. He'd always been reticent and observant the other times she'd seen him, much like you'd expect a bodyguard to act. It turned out that he was a really nice guy, with a lovely deep voice and he obviously cared about Oliver and what they did. It became apparent that they were in the vigilante business together. Knowing that actually made Felicity feel a little better. At least Oliver wasn't doing this alone, without any support.

John seemed amazed that she wasn't more shocked. "Why aren't you freaking out right now?" he asked her.

Felicity just gave him a cagey smile.

"Did he tell you?"

"Oh no. Oliver? Are you kidding me?"

John shrugged. "Yeah, he's not known for opening up."

"Tell me about it. And let's just put it this way, I may be blonde, but I'm not _that_ blonde."

John grinned. "What gave it away?"

"The laptop full of bullet holes? The arrow he wanted me to trace? What about the latest, the energy drink in the syringe?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, his cover stories could use some work."

"Speaking of, what _was_ that? I know it wasn't an energy drink."

"Vertigo," John told her.

"I knew it! I mean, I didn't know it was that specifically but I knew it had to be something like that!"

"We needed it analyzed so we could take down the Count."

Felicity whipped around from where she'd been admiring the display of arrows Oliver had set up on one of the tables. "The Count? That was you guys?"

"And you, Felicity," John said, smiling. "Without your help, we never would have found him."

She swallowed, wondering at the surge of pride she felt. Maybe she didn't have to question what she'd do if Oliver asked her for help again after all.

A little while later, Oliver had a seizure, scaring the shit out of her yet again. John sprung into action, injecting him with something that would stop the seizure but then his heart stopped and he had to get the paddles out to shock him. Luckily, when the machine didn't work Felicity was able to quickly fix the issue and between the two of them, they got Oliver's heart going again.

Felicity felt like she needed a drink.

John was deeply impressed at her ability to quickly fix the machine but she waved it off. She'd been rebuilding computers since she was seven years old. Wires were wires.

After that excitement, she explored the lair some more. She liked calling it a lair, made it sound so much more grandiose. John had retrieved Oliver's bow and quiver from the backseat of her car and it was sitting on one of the tables. She picked it up, practicing pulling the bowstring back.

"This bow... has killed a lot of people," she mused aloud.

"Yes. But it's also saved a lot of people."

"Still. Doesn't that bother you? That he kills? You seem like the sort of guy it would bother. I mean that as a compliment."

John smiled. "And I'll take it as such." He went on to tell her a story of when he'd been deployed in Afghanistan. He'd had to protect a warlord, a really terrible guy, and had ended up killing an insurgent who was no more than a kid in the process. The event had caused him to question if he was still a good man and until he joined up with Oliver in his crusade, John hadn't felt like he'd done real good in a long time.

"And it's worth all the... collateral damage?" She looked to Oliver's still form, so innocent this way. No charm, no swagger. No bow and arrow. No killing.

"I haven't killed anyone," he said.

"But he has," she said, nodding towards Oliver.

"Unfortunately. There are always casualties when you're fighting a war," John replied and he joined her to look over Oliver. "But don't think for a minute that each one of those deaths doesn't weigh on him. He'll never admit it, but I know they do."

Felicity thought about that for the next couple of hours as they waited for Oliver to wake up. John allowed her to busy herself by upgrading Oliver's computer setup, which actually had physically pained her when she'd first seen it. It kept her busy and allowed her mind to wander over the events of the evening. Maybe John had a point about what he and Oliver did. Maybe the police and the media had it wrong.

When Oliver opened his eyes, she joined John at the exam table. He exhaled, his eyes blinking open.

"Welcome back," John told him.

"I guess I didn't die. Cool," he murmured.

Felicity couldn't fight the grin that spread across her face. "Not that you didn't try. A couple times. If you weren't hurt, I'd give you a smack for scaring me half to death like that."

"Sorry about that."

"Here, let me help you up," Dig offered. He helped him sit up, cautioning him not to pull on his stitches. Felicity handed him a mirror so he could see the wound. Oliver cringed.

"Not bad," he told John. "How am I going to explain this one?"

"Hickey gone wrong?" John offered.

Oliver's eyes shot to Felicity and she felt her cheeks flame as she busied herself with the blanket that she'd found for him. She handed it to him, keeping her eyes averted. She heard John snort, which told her he'd noticed her reaction as well as Oliver's. She hurried back to the computer and brought up the program she'd been working on before when the monitors had indicated Oliver was waking up.

"The police collected a sample of your blood at Queen Consolidated. Just thought you might like to know that I just hacked the crime lab and ordered the sample destroyed. Oops!" She smiled at her own ingenuity before turning in her chair to see Oliver standing on his feet behind her, wrapped in the blanket. He was looking past her at the computer setup, a skeptical look on his face.

"I hope its okay, that I didn't step on your toes or anything. It's just... your computer set up looked like it was from the 80's. And not the good part of the 80's with the leg warmers and Madonna. It pained me. Physically."

"Looks like it was a lot of work," he said, smiling. He almost looked bashful.

Felicity shrugged. "I had time to kill."

"Does this mean that you're in?" he asked.

"Is that you asking me to join your little crusade?" she returned.

"You're practically an honorary member already."

She took a deep breath. Her answer here could change everything. Not just for herself but for Oliver and John and the whole city. The weight of responsibility settled heavily on her shoulders and she found she liked the feel of it. "Yes, I'd like to. On one condition."

Oliver's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"

"I'd really like to get to the bottom of what happened to Walter. He's... my friend. He was nice to me when not a lot of people were."

Oliver exchanged a look with John. The other man nodded. "That sounds like a deal." He held out his hand and she took it, feeling his fingers wrap around her smaller hand as he shook it in agreement.

"I was afraid for a minute you'd turn us down," John admitted. He also shook her hand.

"I thought about it. I was going to just offer to help you find Walter and then go back to my boring IT girl life but... I had a talk with John earlier. And he explained why he was here, doing this with you, Oliver. What he said just made sense. And it made me realize I've been searching for that purpose in my life without really knowing it."

Oliver nodded. "I wasn't going to bring you in on this," he admitted. "I thought this was too dangerous, that I was too dangerous. You deserve more than that."

"I think that's for me to decide," she told him.

"Fair enough." He stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder. "And thank you, Felicity. You saved my life tonight."

She blushed. "Anyone would have done it."

"I don't know if that's true. You took a risk and while I hate to ask it of you, I'm so glad you did."

The urge to wrap her arms around him in a hug was strong. But she didn't want to pull on his stitches and she wasn't sure that would be appropriate anyhow. They'd have to have a talk about things. She had the feeling that Dig didn't know about their history together and she couldn't help but wonder herself where this new partnership put them, relationship-wise. But those questions could wait until a later date. For now, she was exhausted and needed to get home.

She wished the men a good night before heading up the stairs and out to her Mini. What a hell of a night.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Felicity is now a member of the team and she has her first "scuffle" with Oliver and they finally have a talk they've been needing to have for a while now. Plus, Felicity gets her first field experience!**

**Hi everyone! Sorry for the sporadic update. I'm still without beta and this has been a crazy week. But here it is, warts and all. I hope the errors aren't too glaring!**

Oliver watched Felicity disappear up the stairs, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. Had he done the right thing, bringing her into his crusade? Only hours ago, he'd been firm in his resolve to keep her out of his life, to keep her safe. Then, his mother had shot him and Oliver knew he didn't have many choices if he wanted to survive the night. It came down to a question of trust and in that instant there in the parking garage, he knew he trusted Felicity.

She'd saved his life just as much as Dig had.

Oliver met Dig's eye as they heard the door at the top of the stairs slam shut. "I'm not sure about this, man," he said.

"Don't you like her?" Oliver asked, remembering Dig's reaction to Helena.

"I like her a lot, Oliver. That's the problem. I don't want to put her life in danger."

"We can protect her," Oliver vowed, wishing he felt half as sure about that as he sounded.

Dig raised an eyebrow at him, clearly skeptical. "Did you know she wasn't the least big surprised about your secret identity?"

Oliver remembered her acknowledgement of him when she found him in her backseat. In the furor over everything, he'd forgotten all about that. "I noticed that when she found me. Did she say anything to you about it?"

"Just that she's not as blonde as she looks. She's a smart girl, Oliver. I think she had you figured out before."

Had she known the other night when she gave him the book with the list of names? That put a whole new perspective on their exchange. Oliver had begun to wonder if Felicity's opinion of him would change if she knew what he did in his spare time and if she would have even gone home with him from the club. But she'd brought him to her house that night, she'd wanted to give him pleasure. If she'd known already, that had to mean something, right?

"She _is_ smart. A lot smarter than either of us. I think we need her," Oliver said.

Dig eyed him speculatively. "There's more to the two of you than you're letting on."

"What do you mean?"

"I asked you once if this was a girl that you were interested in something more with. You told me that she wasn't for you. I let it go but I've seen you with her. There's something more there, something you're not telling me."

Oliver sighed and ran a hand through the cropped hair at the back of his neck and reminded himself that it was better to be honest with his partner. "I slept with her, Dig."

"You _what_?!" Dig thundered. His eyes flashed, jaw set. "Are you kidding me? Why wouldn't you tell me this before? When did this happen?"

He expelled a breath. "Months ago. Before you came on board, actually. Remember when I said I brought Floyd Lawton's laptop to her? I ran into her at a club after that. We flirted and I ended up going home with her." Dig continued to glare so Oliver added, "I didn't think I'd be seeing her again."

"That doesn't make it any better, Oliver. Actually, that kind of makes it worse."

"I know it. I know. Believe me, I know."

"What about since then?" Dig crossed his massive arms over his chest.

Oliver bit the inside of his cheek. "I'm not going to go into details."

"So that's a yes."

"No, it's not. It means I'm not going to give you the details. But I did... meet with her the other night. She gave me a copy of the list that my mother had, remember?"

"And that was it?"

"Not exactly."

Dig continued to glare. "What about now? If she's on the team, are you going to be involved with her?"

"No." The pronouncement stuck in his gut.

"Have you talked about this with her?"

"No..."

"You need to. Because she's a smart girl, she's _good_ and she doesn't deserve to be lead around by the nose by you. Make sure you're both on the same page and that no one is going to get their feelings hurt."

That was the last thing Oliver wanted, for either of them. He wasn't capable of real love, not the sort of love a girl like Felicity deserved. Sure, they'd had a fantastic night together, and Oliver could easily see himself indulging with her again and again. In new and different ways. She may look like an elementary school librarian but he was one of the few that knew how passionate and uninhibited she was underneath it all. But she deserved more than "fuck buddy" status. She deserved the passion and the commitment. Oliver could give her former, but the latter? No, his past with women had shown him quite clearly that he had no business being in a relationship with anyone.

"Dig, I promise you. It was just a one night stand. There's no feelings between us other than friendship."

"That sounds like famous last words to me."

—

Oliver didn't have a good chance to talk to Felicity until nearly a week later. That was what he told himself anyhow, and what he told Dig whenever the older man fixed him with a stare. It was just... he'd never been good at emotional confrontations. And he was scared to death he'd say something that would piss Felicity off and push her away.

It hadn't even been a week and she was already vital to the team.

His stress over the whole thing must be why he'd pushed back at her the way he had. What had begun as a simple conversation about that night's target, a shady businessman named Ken Williams, ended up in Felicity locking him into the lair via the new and improved security system she'd installed just after she'd joined the team. Her actions had pissed him off more than they would have otherwise and he'd stalked back to her, while she'd babbled on about Williams' ten-year old son and how that son shouldn't be orphaned over some sketchy dealings.

Admittedly, Oliver hadn't heard any of that. Instead, he'd leaned over Felicity's desk, doing his best to physically intimidate her. He purposefully made his posture seductive, the way he murmured, "You're not the only one who knows how to reboot my system," and caught her eye.

He was laying it on thick, and he knew that, but he had so much frustration coursing through him that he couldn't stop himself. Most of that frustration was aimed directly at her as well. Felicity met his eye and swallowed visibly, dropping her gaze. "I made a mistake," she said softly and he thought he had her. He thought he had won.

Oliver should have learned to never underestimate Felicity Smoak by now.

"Getting in my way?" Oliver sneered. "I don't disagree."

"No," she replied, her voice stronger. She shoved up from her chair, right into his face, forcing him to step back. Oliver was stunned as she twisted her glare on him. "Thinking you were a different man. You act just like the entitled rich boy you want everyone to think you are."

He gaped at her as she stalked towards the staircase, heading up the stairs. The sound of a soft chuckle had him swiveling his had back around to Diggle, who had been watching the entire exchange.

"Do you believe her?" Oliver cried, frustration still coursing through him.

"Yes, I do." Dig's dry reply had Oliver narrowing his eyes. "You were out of line, Oliver. I saw what you were doing with her. Not cool, man."

A shred of remorse forced its way through his annoyance, growing and expanding until he slumped his shoulders. "Dig, I don't..." he trailed off, not sure what he was trying to say.

Dig, ever the wise man, seemed to understand perfectly. "You need to go after her. Quick, before she leaves. Talk to the girl, Oliver. She deserves it."

Shit. He was right. It was time to quit dancing around the issue of their relationship, whatever it actually was. Grumbling, he headed up the stairs.

Felicity was out at her car, muttering to herself as she dug for her keys in her purse.

"Felicity, wait." Oliver called as he hurried towards her.

She swung her head and glared at him. "I'd rather not, thanks."

"I'm sorry for the way I acted. I did act like an entitled jerk."

"That's an understatement," she grumbled. "Oliver, if you think you can treat me that way just because we-"

Oliver cringed as he held up a hand, cutting her off. "I realize that. Listen, can we talk?"

"Oliver, I don't know. Maybe this wasn't a good idea." Felicity chewed her lip and eyed her car. "Maybe I should go home and we can forget any of this ever happened."

He had a feeling she was talking about more than just this tussle they were having. He felt a surge of panic. "Please, Felicity."

She stared at him for a long moment and then breathed out a heavy sigh. "Fine. I'm no match for your puppy dog eyes."

Oliver smiled then. "Wait just a minute, let me go change and we'll go grab a bite at Big Belly Burger. Deal?"

Felicity shrugged and made a shooing motion with her hand. "Go on. I'll be waiting here."

Oliver hurried back down to the basement to change. Dig was still there, practicing on the training dummy. He paused when he saw Oliver.

"No luck?"

"No, great luck. She's willing to talk, at least," Oliver said as he gathered his favorite cargo pants and grey t-shirt.

"Good luck, man. And please, don't screw this up. I kinda like her, which is saying something. Most of your girlfriends I can't stand."

Oliver shucked off the green hood and smirked. He knew Dig was referring specifically to Helena.

"She's not my girlfriend," Oliver pointed out as she peeled his leather trousers off and pulled on the cargos.

"Whatever you say, Romeo," Dig replied with a smirk before returned back to the training dummy. "I'm going to head out in a few, call if you need me tonight."

"Sure thing." Oliver finished dressing and hurried back out to Felicity's car. She leaned against the driver's side, tapping at her cell phone screen.

"Thanks for waiting," he told her. "I hope I didn't take too long."

Felicity shoved her phone in her purse and smiled tightly at him. "You caught me on a good night. Let's go."

Oliver crammed himself into the passenger seat of Felicity's Mini and she drove them to Big Belly Burger. Oliver stared out the window during the ride and Felicity, for once, didn't fill the silence with babble. He almost wished she would. He wasn't sure what to say quite yet and was afraid that he might say something to upset her before they even got to the burger joint.

Oliver hoped to let her understand that he wasn't wanting a relationship without making it sound like he expected she that she _was_. Where had his old finesse gone? He'd had this conversation with multiple women back before the shipwreck and hadn't ever given it a second thought. Now he was sweating like a virgin on prom night. Was he, Oliver Queen, losing his touch?

Felicity pulled up outside BBB and wordlessly, they got out of the car. Oliver held the door for Felicity and she walked in ahead of him, her head held high. He fought a smile as he followed her into the restaurant. If he didn't know her better, he'd think with the glass-wearing, ponytailed, smart girl would be more awkward and unsure of herself. But Felicity knew exactly who she was and dammit, that was endearing.

She commandeered a booth next to the windows overlooking the sidewalk, taking off her coat and setting down her purse on the bench next to her.

"Shall I order us a couple Belly Busters?" Oliver asked her.

She shrugged a shoulder. "Sure. And a milkshake, please."

"Chocolate?"

"Of course."

Oliver was still struggling not to smile as he stepped up to the counter and ordered their food. He returned to the booth a moment later and slid onto the bench across from her. She was peering at something on her cell phone again, but set it aside as he settled into his seat.

"Okay," she began, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I need to convince you not to walk away."

"Why?"

"Because Dig would never forgive me," he said and that was certainly part of the truth. Felicity just raised an eyebrow at him and fixed him with an unamused expression. "Listen, you're smart. You're probably the smartest person I've ever met and I've met a lot of people. I need your expertise if I'm going to be doing what I'm doing. And what I said about Diggle isn't a line. He likes you, he'd be pretty pissed at me if something I did chased you off."

"And what about you?" she asked. "Do you like me?"

Oliver shifted in his seat. "Of course, I like you, Felicity. I wouldn't have come to you that night if I didn't."

Felicity pressed her lips into a line as she watched him. She was about reply, he could tell from the way her mouth popped open and she sucked in a breath, but was interrupted by Carly, delivering their order. She set a root beer float in front of Oliver, a strawberry milkshake in front of Felicity and the mouthwatering scent from the burgers reminding him how hungry he was.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Felicity pointed out as she chewed on a french fry. "But I'm hungry and you look like you could eat a horse so lets save it till after we eat, okay?"

Oliver could agree with that. They both dug into their meals, and Felicity chattered to him about her friend, Stacy, and how she was thinking of maybe flying out to Gotham sometime in the summer to visit her.

"Do you have any friends from... before?" she asked after washing down a bite of her burger with a sip of her milkshake.

"You don't keep up much on celebrity gossip, do you?" he asked her as he swirled a fry in ketchup.

"I guess not. I find the latest tech news to be so much more interesting." She picked up her burger and took a healthy bite, which made him grin. He couldn't think of the last time he'd gone on a date with a girl and had her actually _eat_.

Not that this was a date.

"Yes, I have friends. I've known Tommy Merlyn since we were kids."

"I bet he was happy to see you come home," Felicity remarked.

"I think he was surprised. Everyone was."

"Any girls?" She sipped at her milkshake and he found the sight of her lips wrapped around the straw to be a bit distracting. Oliver tore his eyes away and forced himself to meet her steady blue gaze.

"Laurel Lance and I were pretty serious before the island," he said. How much was he going to tell her? This story didn't paint him in the best light, after all, and he wanted to coax her to stay with him and Dig, not run screaming into the night.

"You broke up before you left?"

He shook his head. "No."

A wrinkle appeared between Felicity's eyebrows. "But I saw the news reports when you came back, they said you'd gone on the boat with your dad and your girlfriend. What was her name? Sara...? Feel free to tell me to shut up if I'm bringing up a terrible memory."

"Sara Lance," he supplied.

Felicity's eyes grew round. "Oh. So would that be... Laurel's sister, then?"

Oliver nodded. "Yeah." He kept his eyes on his plate, on his half eaten hamburger. "I'm not proud of it, Felicity."

"Is Laurel still... around?" she asked and he could tell she was trying to be delicate.

"Actually, she's dating Tommy."

A bubbling laugh escaped her before she caught herself. "I'm sorry, is it okay to laugh? It's just... that's too much. What is your life, Oliver?"

He had to chuckle too. "It's almost like a bad soap opera, right?"

"Exactly." She munched on another fry before speaking again. "So are you okay with it? With your best friend dating your former girlfriend?"

Oliver shrugged. "At first I wasn't too sure. I spent a lot of time on that island, thinking about Laurel and wanting to come home and make things right with her. I wanted to get back to her so badly. But after I got here, I saw how mad she still was at me and I've been wondering if didn't want to get back to her so much as I wanted to get back to who I was before the island."

"But you're not that man anymore."

Oliver smirked at her. "You didn't even know me before, how do you know?"

"If it's online, I can find it. I know enough, Oliver. And I know enough about who you are now to know you're not that guy anymore." She picked up her burger and took another big bite while he considered what she'd said.

He hadn't thought about it that way before. He'd been so concerned with getting back to his life and hadn't stopped to consider that his old life just wasn't there anymore. Laurel wasn't there anymore; she'd moved on with her life and she'd moved on with Tommy. That was okay. She was better off with Tommy than with him anyhow.

"You're a smart woman, Felicity," he told her at last. He heaved a sigh. "And that's why I need you on the team."

She sighed too, stirring her straw around in the remains of her milkshake. "I didn't like how you treated me tonight, Oliver. It felt like you were using the fact that we've slept together to try to intimidate me."

"I know and I'm sorry. I was frustrated. I'm not used to people questioning my actions."

"Like a spoiled rich boy."

"Yes, like a spoiled rich boy. I reacted badly and you called me out on that. No one, besides Dig, has ever done that here. Off the island, that is."

"More people should."

"But they don't because they only see me as I was before the island."

"And you push people away." He leveled her with a bland look. "You do!" she insisted. "You've tried to push me away, and I'm not just talking about tonight."

"I can't... get involved with anyone, Felicity," he told her.

"Why not?"

Oliver grit his jaw. This was cutting a little close to the surface. "I have my reasons and they're _my_ reasons. I don't want to talk about it."

A look passed over Felicity's face, shuttering her eyes. "Alright. That's fine. I assume you're also talking about us. About our relationship."

"We don't _have_ a relationship, Felicity. And yes, I am."

He watched as she ripped apart one of the few fries left on her plate ruthlessly before tossing the pieces down and wiping her fingers on a napkin. "We _do_ have a relationship, Oliver, even if it's just a working one. I'd like to be your friend too, if you'd let me. I'm not looking for anything more, I can assure you."

That was exactly what he wanted. So why he feel a surge of frustration at her declaration? Oliver rolled his shoulders, took a drink from his root beer float and then said, simply, "Good."

"Now that that's out of the way, are you going to stop acting like an ass when we're doing our... business?" Felicity glanced over her shoulder at the mostly empty restaurant.

"Are you going to keep working with us?"

"Depends on if you're going to stop acting like an ass or not."

"I'll try. Can you be patient with me?"

"I'll try."

They stared at each other for a moment and Oliver had a brief but very sincere regret that he wouldn't get to have another night with Felicity in her bed. But he was better off not having those thoughts about her now. Saving the city was far more important than his neglected libido.

"Sounds like we're on the same page then," he said, wishing he felt more conviction about it.

—

Two days into their new venture and Oliver as a knot of frustration. It wasn't that there wasn't enough distraction; a jewel thief known as "The Dodger" had hit Starling City and, at Felicity's urging, they were tracking him down and trying to draw him out. This was a situation where the Queen family wealth and assets came in very handy. A cancer society benefit and silent auction was the perfect venue to draw out the elusive thief so Oliver found a jewel in his family's vault that fit the Dodger's tastes and donated it to the auction. Felicity had placed a tiny tracking device on the jeweled piece so she could monitor it from her cell phone. Still, they would all need to be at the benefit for this to work.

The plan was for Oliver and Diggle to man the exists and keep an eye on the bait as well as any suspicious looking characters. Felicity needed to be there too, since her tracker worked better in proximity and she'd need to be near the bait item in order to get a read on its location. They all arranged to meet up there when the benefit began.

Oliver arrived first, dressed in one of his finest suits with an expensive white button down shirt and black silk tie. He found Dig relatively quickly, also dressed in a nice suit, and the two of them conferred quickly. Dig pointed out that the police were on site as well, probably also trying to track the Dodger and Oliver hoped their presence wouldn't deter the thief.

Right about then, he saw a figure appear through the crowd. She was petite, curvaceous and wearing a glittering golden dress that not only stopped mid-thigh, but showcased a slit that crept up her leg even further. Her golden hair tumbled in bouncing waves around her shoulders. It took Oliver a moment to realize it was Felicity. There were no glasses perched on her nose and her legs looked like they went on for miles. She looked uncannily like she had the night he'd run into her at the nightclub and he'd almost forgotten the effect of her "after-hours" look. His mouth popped open as he stared at her.

Dig nudged him with an elbow. "What is it? What do you see?"

"Felicity." Her name sounded strangled coming from his throat.

Dig followed his line of sight and left out a low whistle. "Girl cleans up good," he murmured. They started towards her and she looked up from her phone as they approached.

"I'm getting a good signal on the tracker," she announced, holding up the phone with a proud smile.

"Looking good, Ms. Smoak," Dig told her.

She beamed back at him. "Thank you, Mr. Diggle. You don't look bad yourself. Or you, Oliver."

Oliver attempted a smile back but that knot of frustration he'd been feeling since the other night just tightened further. He hadn't counted on the fact that working with Felicity meant he was going to see her all the time. He also hadn't counted on seeing her all the time only making him want her more.

He'd had the perfect opportunity to put off his feelings about Felicity by taking McKenna Hall out on a date. The SCPD Officer was definitely interested in him, had flirted with him and given enough hints that he'd have to have been stupid not to get the message. As it was, he felt guilty for asking her out to coffee under the guise of "catching up" as old friends, only to put the listening device on her phone when her back was turned.

Why couldn't he just ask McKenna out and forget about Felicity? He'd thought about it and had nearly done just that. But he couldn't get the words out. Instead, he'd left the coffee shop, leaving McKenna looking disappointed behind him.

And his "problem" with Felicity was only getting worse.

Seeing her in this dress with her hair down and her makeup and those _shoes_... Oliver's restraint was being sorely tested and he was reminded just how long it had been since he'd properly gotten laid.

"Speaking of," Felicity was saying as the three of them walked together along the display cases for the auction, pretending as though they were checking out the jewels, "have you given any thought to what might happen if this doesn't work and the Dodger absconds with your family jewels?"

She caught herself a second later, her eyes slamming shut as she stopped walking. Diggle smirked and Oliver felt a smile threaten the corners of his mouth. God, she was precious.

"I'm sorry, that came out totally wrong," she moaned.

"It's all right, Felicity," Dig assured her. "We got what you meant."

"We're not going to let it happen," Oliver told her. "You've got your eye on the piece, and no one's going to get past Dig or I. Let's just keep our eyes open."

They split up for a bit and Oliver tried avoid McKenna, whom he'd spotted talking to some patrons. He tried to keep an eye on Felicity but he lost sight of her as she walked around with her phone out, keeping a vigilant eye on the bait. He found Dig after about ten minutes and was about to suggest that they find Felicity when she came rushing up to them.

Oliver didn't notice it at first, not until her fingers flew up to touch it. A chunky metal band was in place around her neck, lights flashing red on it. Her eyes were wide and afraid. "Guys? I think we have a problem," she said breathlessly. Dig grabbed her arm and looked to him. Oliver, meanwhile, felt like he was going to be sick.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: So sorry for the delay in updating. I was very busy with the Olicity Hiatus Project on Tumblr last week and there wasn't much time for anything else. Plus, there was the holiday here in the States that kinda threw off the rhythm of the week as well. But I'm back on track and my beta is back in the seat so here we go! Enjoy the chapter and thanks for your patience!

John and Oliver quickly maneuvered her into a nearby empty office. She backed away from them as quickly as she could, putting her hands up to fend them off.

"No, get away from me. This is a bomb, if it goes off..." Felicity went silent, swallowing hard.

"I won't let that happen," Oliver growled, continuing his advance on her until she was backed against a desk.

"Hold still, let me have a look at this thing," John said.

"No! The Dodger said that if I called the police or tried to do anything then he'd press the button."

John searched the desk top until he found a tray of pins and he used one to pry open a compartment on the front of the collar.

"How's it look, Dig?" Oliver asked.

"Complicated. I don't see a way to disarm it without setting it off," he grumbled.

Felicity fought not to tremble as both men studied the collar around her neck. Oliver was radiating tension, from his clenched jaw to his stiff shoulders, down to where his knuckles were white as they gripped the edge of the desk next to her hip.

"Dammit!" he swore. He backed off, turning around and running a hand through his short hair. He turned back to her. "Do you still have your phone with the tracker initialized?"

She pulled it out of her handbag and turned it on. "Yep," she said. A blinking red dot on the display showed that the Dodger was on the move. Oliver covered her shaking hand with his own and met her eyes steadily.

"Okay, then I can track him down and get him to disarm the collar. Felicity, I need you to talk me in. I need you to stay calm."

"Oliver..."

"Felicity. Talk to me. That's all I need you to do, okay? I'll fix this, I promise."

It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but what if this was something he couldn't stop, couldn't fix? Tears threatened her eyes and she fought to keep a hold on her courage. She had to trust him. What other choice did she have? Blinking fast, she met his eyes and nodded. He nodded back. "Turn on the comms you set up. Talk to me," he repeated.

She dug the earpiece out of her purse and fixed it in her ear as he did the same with the earpiece he took from his pocket.

"You got this, Dig?" he asked their partner as he started for the door of the office.

"Not much I can do, but yes," John muttered.

Oliver left in a rush and a moment later, she heard his voice in her ear. "Where is he, Felicity?"

She watched the moving dot on the app. "He's in the parking garage. Let me pull up the traffic camera footage," she muttered. A few moments later, she had him. "Okay, he's in a grey sedan, moving east towards Heroes Plaza."

"Got it." A minute later she heard the roar of a motorcycle engine over the comm. "Okay, I'm mobile. Tell me where he is."

Felicity relayed directions as best she could, monitoring the Dodger's progress against Oliver's. He was able to gain on the thief rather quickly due to the speed and maneuverability of the motorcycle.

"I got him," Oliver announced a minute later. "I'm right behind him."

Felicity lowered her phone and met John's eye. The other man looked nervous, but he gave her a smile.

"It'll be okay, Felicity. Oliver will take care of this."

"I wish I could say I'm not terrified, but I can't."

"There's no shame in that."

"I'm sorry that this happened. This is all my fault," she sighed.

John's forehead creased. "What are you talking about? This isn't even remotely your fault. This is all on the Dodger."

"I saw him take the jewel out of the case. I should have gone to get you and Oliver but I confronted him myself. I told him if he wanted to take that, he'd have to pay for it." Felicity blushed at the memory.

John's chuckle surprised her. "I would have liked to see that. You, confronting the international jewel thief, all on your own." He shook his head. "Felicity, you are something else."

There was a loud crashing noise over the comms and Felicity's hand flew up to her ear automatically. "Oliver? What was that?!"

"The Dodger flipped his car. Hold on, I'm going to put an end to this," Oliver said, his voice rough.

Felicity listened intently as Oliver confronted the Dodger. Her blood chilled when she overheard the Dodger threatening to take her head off if Oliver hurt him. But a moment later, Oliver had neutralized him with a thrown mini-arrow, severing the Dodger's medial nerve. It was another moment before her collar beeped and released.

Her breath left her in a whoosh as she reached up to feel her now freed neck. "Oh god."

"You're okay, Felicity. He saved you," John said as he removed the remnants of the collar from around her neck.

She was shaking, almost violently. Without a word, John removed his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

"Oliver?" John said into his own comm. "She's pretty shaken up. I'm going to take her home."

"Good idea," Oliver replied, his voice nearly a growl. "I've got this guy neutralized. SCPD is on the way to pick him up. I'll meet you at the foundry?"

"Sounds good."

Felicity fought a wave of disappointment that she wouldn't see Oliver that night. For some reason, the thing she wanted most in that moment was to burrow against him, feel his arms around her, and hear him tell her that she was safe. Another shudder rolled through her and John wrapped an arm around her shoulder, supporting her.

"C'mon," he urged. "It's best you not see him until tomorrow, you know."

She was startled that he'd apparently read her mind. "Why do you say that?"

They walked towards the town car John had driven Oliver to the benefit in. "Because he needs some time to settle down. I know this scared you, but it scared him too."

Felicity shrugged and got in the passenger seat when John opened the door for her. "You're exaggerating," she mumbled.

"No, I'm not. Oliver doesn't have the best handle on his emotions these days. He doesn't want to scare you."

"How do you know this, John?" she asked him as he pulled the car out of the parking spot.

"Because Oliver and I are very alike in a few ways. And I know I'd react the same way."

Felicity eyed him speculatively. "You aren't reacting that way now," she pointed out.

John glanced at her as they passed under a street light. "Because it's not the same."

He didn't say any more on it and Felicity didn't ask. She leaned her head back on the car seat as John drove her home, thinking about the implications of what John had said. What he'd said made it sound like he thought Oliver had feelings for her, feelings beyond friendship. But Oliver had been explicit the other day that he did not and he would not. What was the real story?

She needed a pint of ice cream and a phone call to Stacy to process this out.

—

Oliver trotted down the steps into the basement of the foundry, slowing when he heard a series of grunts, both male and female. There was the sound of something hitting the mats, hard. A body.

He remembered hearing Dig say he wanted to give Felicity some tips in self defense, especially in the wake of their scuffle with the Dodger. They'd mostly been training while Oliver was out on missions, which was fine by him because Oliver wasn't sure he could handle seeing Felicity have to defend herself, even if it was against Dig and for her own good.

But now, knowing they were working just a few feet away, Oliver couldn't resist having a look. He moved forward silently, leaning against a column as he watched Felicity grapple with Dig. She wasn't wearing her glasses and her hair was back in her customary ponytail, but a few hairs had escaped to hang around her face. Sweat glistened on her shoulders and chest, and he noticed she was wearing a tight pair of black leggings in a fitted grey, white, and black sports bra.

With all her curves on display, Oliver had to tamp down the surge of arousal he felt. As well as the surge of annoyance. Oh, he knew Dig wasn't interested in her that way. Still, there was a primal reaction to another male being able to see his girl's figure that Oliver couldn't avoid.

Wait... his girl?

Oliver's thoughts had been tangled in Felicity ever since their run in with the Dodger the week before. Well, to be perfectly honest, she'd been in his thoughts since the moment he met her in one way or another. But the image of her with that bomb collar around her neck, the fear in her eyes, the ice cold pit of dread in his stomach... Taking the Dodger out had done little to calm Oliver's raging emotions. He'd ended up back at the foundry that night, attacking the salmon ladder, the training dummy, Dig when he'd returned after driving Felicity home... He'd pushed his body hard, knowing that if he let up for even a moment, he'd give in to the temptation to rush over to her townhouse.

His emotions had boiled close to the surface for days afterward so he'd kept himself away from Felicity as much as he could. She'd noticed, he could tell, and responded to him in kind. The distance between them was unusual and after a couple days, Dig had asked him if something had happened with him. Oliver had brushed his friend and ally off, but Dig had given him a look that said he knew he was trying to avoid the issue.

He turned his attention back to the mats, where Dig was sweeping a leg at Felicity's knees, bringing her facedown on the mat.

"Ow!" she cried and he almost rushed forward. Dig held out a hand which she took and he pulled her to her feet.

"Remember to keep your feet planted," he reminded her. "You did better that time, especially with the upper body defense but you have to be prepared to defend yourself from all angles and all kinds of attacks."

She grabbed a towel of the table and used it to dab at her face before hanging it around her neck. Dig tossed her a water bottle and she took a long drink. "But I am getting better."

"Yes, you are. If you're going to work with us, I know I'll feel better if you can defend yourself." Dig took a swig from his own water bottle. "And I know Oliver will too."

"That's right," Oliver said, pushing off the column and revealing himself.

"How did it go tonight?" she asked.

"Great for me. Not very good for him," he replied, crossing to the computers and picking up the list of names. He crossed off the name Guillermo Barrera and snapped the little book shut. He turned to see Felicity fixing him with a hard look.

"What?" he asked, already defensive and not even knowing quite why yet.

"So you killed him?" Her arms were crossed over her sports-bra clad chest, pushing her cleavage up. Oliver forced his eyes onto her face.

"And we can't ask him about his intended target," Dig remarked.

"He didn't leave me much choice," he explained. "It was him or me."

Felicity grimaced. "Then I suppose you made the right choice, but maybe we should work on some specialty arrows that knock out the bad guys instead of killing them."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Dig cut in.

"Not bad at all," Oliver murmured, eyeing her appraisingly. "Do you think you could work something up? Maybe some sort of chemical compound that would act a bit like chloroform or something?"

She shrugged. "Sure. I can do that." Bringing up the corner of her towel, she wiped at her head again.

"So how are we going to find out why this guy was in town in the first place? Assassin for hire, right?" Dig asked.

"I got his phone," Oliver said, reaching into his pocket and pulling it out. He met Felicity's eye. "I need you to hack it. This guy was world class, lots of high profile targets. Whoever hired him is serious and isn't likely to give up the job just because I took their golden boy out. We need to find out who the target is and fast if we want to save their lives."

She nodded as she took the phone. "I'll get right on it."

The next several days were a whirl of activity and drama. Felicity was able to get just enough information off the phone to lead Oliver to the Chinese Triad. They were targeting someone at an award ceremony. The guest of honor was Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy's father. Not only were his best friend and his father going to be there, but Thea and his mother were attending as well. There were too many potential targets and too many people Oliver cared about. He was a nervous wreck.

At the last moment, Oliver realized the target was Malcolm Merlyn himself. He'd never been close to the man, finding him distant and cold since the death of his wife so many years ago. But he was Tommy's father and with Tommy at his father's side during the festivities, Oliver couldn't risk his friend getting caught in the crossfire.

Despite his best efforts at protecting his best friend's father from the Chinese Triad, Malcolm was ultimate short via a high powered rifle with a bullet that he soon discovered was laced with curare, the same poison that Deadshot used on his bullets. Oliver knew exactly what that meant but didn't have time to dwell as he fought to save Malcolm's life while Tommy looked on. He hadn't meant to expose his identity to his friend, but it had been unavoidable in his effort to get Tommy to trust him to save his father. The horror on his face as he looked at Oliver, bow at the ready and greasepaint smudged eyes, was a sight Oliver wasn't going to soon forget.

He managed to keep Malcolm alive until paramedics arrived. With a regretful look at Tommy, he fled the scene before the police showed up and arrested him. Then, he had to tell Dig that Floyd Lawton was still alive. The gutted look on the other man's face twisted his gut and caused his guilt to flare. He'd thought he'd killed Deadshot the last time they'd met. He'd put an arrow through the man's eye, after all.

Dig had left the foundry shortly after that, leaving him alone with Felicity. Oliver had purposefully limited the number of times he'd been alone with her, especially since the Dodger incident. But right then, after the emotional events of the evening, Oliver didn't have the strength to walk away from her.

Felicity took one look at him, saw something in his face, and took his hand. She lead him over to the battered sofa that she'd found at a thrift shop and insisted that he and Dig drag down the stairs. He sat heavily and felt the sofa dip beside him as Felicity joined him, still holding his hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"Tommy- I had to show him it was me," he said quietly. "The look on his face-"

Her thumb rubbed across his knuckles. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to do that and I'm sorry that his reaction hurt you."

"I mean, I understand. I do. I kept this huge secret from him and we never used to keep secrets from each other," Oliver told her. "We've always told each other everything. I feel like I've let him down."

"You saved his father, Oliver. The absolute last thing you did tonight was let him down."

Her voice was firm, inviting no argument. Oliver lifted his eyes to meet her gaze as she watched him. Her eyes were soft but her posture was firm, her grip on his hand was steadying and Oliver marveled at how strong she was.

He'd seen her weak. He'd seen that fear in her eyes the night of that benefit. He'd felt her tremble in his arms, caught up in the throes of passion. But she was strong underneath it all and he suspected she was far stronger than him in all the ways that really mattered.

"Felicity," he whispered and his eyes drifted down, unconsciously, to her lips. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to show her that her support meant something to him and how beautiful her strength was to him. But... he couldn't do that. He'd promised himself. He'd promised her. He drew back, putting some distance between them and focused on her eyes again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied, looking more uncertain than she had a few minutes ago. She gave his hand a final squeeze before getting up from the sofa and crossing across the lair to return to her computers.

He'd done that to her, he'd pushed too close and he'd made her uncomfortable. Oliver cursed himself as he leaned back against the sofa cushions, letting his eyes slam shut. He needed to be a lot more careful than he was being. For both of their sakes.

—

Helena was back in town.

She wanted Oliver to help her get past FBI witness protection so that she could kill her father once and for all but he refused. Of course he refused. Why she would think that he wouldn't boggled his mind and he wondered if she'd ever actually bothered to know him at all or if she'd just been putting on an act while they'd been going out. He'd been careless with her before. He should have listened to Dig when the other man had expressed distrust in her, but he'd been desperate to have some sort of connection with someone and she'd seemed like the perfect match for him. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Helena hadn't taken his "no" as a firm answer and had put some pressure on him instead, taking Tommy hostage and threatening to kill him unless Oliver complied with her wishes. Tommy was still upset with him over the revelation about his secret identity and it wasn't as though he would leave his best friend in the clutches of someone who Dig rightly referred to as his "psycho ex-girlfriend". He'd given in, promising to give her his help if she'd just let Tommy go and leave him out of it. She'd complied readily, happy to get her way and Oliver wondered what on earth he'd ever seen in her.

The next day, Dig was dropping some well deserved knowledge on him about Helena. He hadn't said "I told you so", but he may as well have. Oliver knew he was right but he was completely backed into a corner. She knew his identity, she knew the location of his headquarters. Oliver couldn't kill her; as much as she'd done to ruin whatever affection he'd once had for her, he still couldn't bring himself to that. But he couldn't turn her in to the cops either. She had him over a barrel and they all knew it.

"Am I interrupting?" the woman in question asked, strolling into the foundry as though it were his living room.

"We were just talking about you," Oliver said, his jaw tight as he turned to face her.

"Aww. And here I thought you didn't care much for me," Helena purred, looking at Dig. The other man glared back at her openly.

"Still don't."

Helena made a face and turned her attention back to Oliver. "Are you ready to make good on your promise?"

"I haven't been able to locate the safe house where the FBI is keeping your father," he told her.

"I can help with that," a new voice said. Oliver felt his blood run cold as he turned to see Felicity walking in. "I've been dying to hack into the FBI's system."

Helena turned to look at Felicity too and Oliver knew what her thoughts were. Fear lanced through him and he held a hand up to ward Felicity out. "Get out," he growled. "Now. Get out."

She stopped in her tracks, looking from him to Dig, who was crossing around him to approach her, putting himself between her and Helena. She also looked to Helena, who was now looking at her with a speculative expression. Felicity's face went pale and he could only guess at what she must be thinking, seeing another woman in the lair.

He gentled his voice. "This is... a private thing, Felicity."

Her brow wrinkled and the hurt was evident on her face. Oliver fought a cringe.

"Oh. 'Kay." She looked from him to Helena again before turning to walk back out. Her steps were slow, uncertain. "See ya, I guess."

Regret pooled in his gut as he watched her go. The last thing he wanted was for Felicity to doubt her place here on the team, but he couldn't risk Helena taking notice of her. There was no telling what that woman would do.

"Just how many girlfriends do you have?" Helena asked him. Her tone was teasing but the implication hit him hard. Helena wanting something was one thing, a jealous Helena wanting something was another. Distraction was key.

"Like I said, we don't know where the safe house is, but we do know the marshals are transporting your father to a hearing at the justice department tonight. There will be two vans, one is a decoy."

"Good thing there are two of us," she replied smoothly.

Which was how he ended up helping her attack those vans later that night. It turned out to be a trap set by the FBI to capture her once and for all. It would have been a great opportunity to finally be rid of her, but Oliver knew that Helena would reveal his secret if she thought it would help her gain release. He broke her out of police custody but before she could even attempt to manipulate him further, he demanded she leave Starling City.

He thought that was the end of it and went home to take a nice, long, hot shower.

While he was in the shower, he got a voicemail from Felicity. She called him more and more these days, always related to their business, but he enjoyed that she felt comfortable contacting him. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he listened to the message.

"Hey Oliver. Working late at QC tonight. I just wanted to let you know, I've been keeping an eye on the scanners and the SCPD just reported a break in at a sporting goods store. Pretty routine but the major item stolen was a high powered crossbow. Could be a crazy coincidence, but it sounds to me like your 'psycho ex-girlfriend', Dig's words and not mine, is still in town. I'll let you know if I learn anything more, in the meantime, just watch your-"

She stopped talking and he heard a murmur of voices, the sounds of a scuffle, and the message cut off. He felt the blood drain from his face. God dammit! Not only had Helena not left down but it seemed as though she'd done exactly what he'd been afraid she'd do. Fearing for Felicity's safety yet again, and quite rightly so, Oliver hurriedly dressed before racing out of the mansion to where he parked his Ducati. He called Dig on his way out the door, letting him know that Felicity was in trouble at QC.

He sped off into the night, hoping against hope that he wasn't too late.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading, favoriting and reviewing this story! You've been patient and enthusiastic and that means the world. Also, just a reminder since I think some people aren't quite familiar with what this story is: it is an alternate season 1. Which means that events follow about the same path as season 1 of the show with small changes to the canon. The changes in this case involve Oliver and Felicity's relationship with one another. I've had a few comments from people who are annoyed at how closely this follows the show, however, I think the story I'm telling is quite different from the show. I *wish* the show was like this! ;) The events that happen will remain canon (the Dodger, Helena, infiltrating the casino, the Undertaking) but the difference will be the evolution of Oliver and Felicity's relationship through it. Does that make sense? If the following of canon events aggravates you, perhaps this story isn't for you. Sorry about that! **

**I want to thank lunarsilverwolfstar for being a great beta. Warning: there is some explicit material towards the end of this chapter. Feel free to skip over that. **

Today just hadn't been her day.

Felicity had plenty of time to contemplate just how badly her day had gone as she lay, zip-tied, on the floor behind her desk in the IT department at Queen Consolidated. She should have seen this coming; it explained so much, really.

Earlier, when Oliver had snapped at her to get out of the foundry basement, she'd been startled. It wasn't like him to be so harsh and abrupt with her so she'd automatically thought that she'd done something wrong. Then there was that other woman there, the one she'd heard him and John discussing. Felicity should have remembered just how much John seemed to dislike her. Instead, all she saw was a beautiful young woman, a young woman she remembered seeing photographed with Oliver on the gossip blogs several months before, talking with Oliver in his secret hide-out. Clearly, that meant she was in on his secret. Why that had bothered her, she didn't know.

But as she lay on her side, getting up close and personal with the fiber of her office carpet, Felicity had to admit that she'd been a bit jealous. After all, she thought she was the only woman Oliver had trusted enough to share his secret with. Logically, she knew she had no reason to feel this way. She and Oliver had no relationship, and he did date Helena for a brief time. Considering they'd been in a relationship, it made sense that the other women had known his secret. Still, feelings didn't always make sense and Felicity was pragmatic enough to realize this was one of those times.

With the benefit of the hindsight she now had, Felicity realized Olives ordering out of the foundry had been an act of protection. This explained why Diggle had also stepped forward to block her progress towards Helena. Of course, that protection had come a bit too late as Helena had already heard her mention that she could hack into the FBI system to locate her father's safe house.

Stupid.

John had called her to tell her just who Helena was, that she was also a vigilante known as the "The Huntress", and, in his opinion, not entirely emotionally stable. He hadn't spelled it out explicitly, but Felicity got the impression that her relationship with Oliver had been a bit tempestuous. Considering Oliver's own emotional problems, she thought that was saying quite a bit. He'd then explained why Helena was back, what she wanted of Oliver, and how Oliver intended to get her to leave town once and for all.

Felicity had been working late at QC, finishing up some coding work for a project that needed to be completed by lunch tomorrow when she'd heard about the break in at the sporting goods store. As soon as she heard "crossbow", which Diggle had informed her was the Huntress' weapon of choice, she'd had a feeling this was bad news and called Oliver right away. That was good, she supposed. Would have been better if he'd actually answered instead of let her call go to voicemail. But she knew he checked his messages regularly and that he'd get hers. He'd hear how her message cut off, the scuffle that ensued before Helena had ripped the phone away from her and ended the call, and would come to check on her.

Which, hopefully, was going to be soon. Her hands were bound behind her back and the way she was laying was putting some serious strain on her left shoulder. Her glasses had been knocked off and she knew her hair was a mess. She'd only allowed herself a few tears, when Helena had first forced her to hack the FBI database and then when she'd tied her up. Maybe those tears had made Helena feel sorry for her and it's why she hadn't hurt her before she'd gone tearing out of her office. Felicity hoped so. She'd hate to think that the other woman thought her weak and pathetic.

All in all, she didn't have to wait terribly long before she heard someone come crashing into her office. "Felicity?" a deep voice called.

"Oliver!" she called back.

He repeated her name, coming around her desk. God, he sounded worried. She knew that shouldn't thrill her the way it did but she was only human. No one could blame her for taking some enjoyment out of Oliver being so overtly concerned about her.

He was on his knees next to her in an instant. She heard the sound of her desk drawer opening and then closing and, a moment later, Oliver used her scissors to cut the tie around her ankles before moving up to cut the one binding her wrists.

"I'm here, you're okay," he told her, his voice now gentle. Oliver cupped her face as he helped her sit up and for the first time, she got a good look at his face. Stark, naked terror was written all over his features, from his wide eyes to his creased forehead and his set jaw. His eyes roamed over her, probably taking note of her disheveled hair, streaked eye makeup, and shaking hands. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Oliver, I'm so sorry. She had me hack the database for her. I couldn't-"

"Shhh..." he murmured, cupping her face again. "It's okay. It's not your fault. Did she hurt you?"

"No. Just tied me up when she was done. Oliver, she's on her way there right now. She's going to kill him!"

Oliver pressed his lips together. He pulled her to him and surprised her by pressing his lips against her forehead. He said something, but she couldn't hear what it was.

"Oliver? Felicity?" John burst into her office, eyes wide and scared.

"Right here. She's okay."

"I got the call. What happened?"

Oliver helped her to her feet, rubbing his hands down her arms after he was certain she was steady. He kept his eyes on her as he replied to Diggle's question. "Helena held Felicity with her crossbow, made her hack the FBI system and find out where Bertinelli is being held. Tied her up."

"Jesus."

Oliver was still staring at her and Felicity had to tear her eyes away to look at John. "I'm okay," she assured him. He nodded, but he was eyeing them both speculatively. She blushed as he raised an eyebrow at her. She knew what he was thinking. The look he gave her said that he planned to talk about this with her later. Whatever this was.

"What are you going to do?" John asked Oliver as she jotted down the address she'd given Helena onto a scrap of paper on her desk and handed it to Oliver.

He finally looked away from her and his jaw clenched so tightly she saw a muscle jump. "I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place," he growled. He rushed out of the room, leaving her with John.

"Will he be okay?" Felicity asked Diggle for perhaps the tenth time since Oliver had left QC to chase Helena down.

"He knows how to handle himself, Felicity."

They were back at the foundry, monitoring Oliver's tracker and waiting to hear something, anything, over the comm. He had the audio turned off so they couldn't hear what was going on. The police scanners told them that SCPD was en route and they could only hope that the clash wouldn't be catastrophic. John was right; Oliver did know how to take care of himself. Still, she worried.

"The question is, do you know how to handle him?"

Felicity whirled around to face John and saw him leaning against her desk, his arms crossed in front of his chest, fixing her with a hard look. She swallowed hard.

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying for a casual tone.

"You know what I mean. I talked to Oliver. He told me."

A surge of anger rushed through her. "What? What did he tell you?"

"He told me about your relationship before you joined us."

"He really shouldn't have," she seethed.

"I pushed him to tell me, Felicity," John said. "I could tell there was something between you two and I wanted to make sure it wasn't something that would get in the way of what we do. He assured me it wouldn't but I'm still not sure. Especially after I saw the way he was looking at you tonight."

"John..."

"Please, call me Diggle. Only my mother calls me John."

Felicity smiled then, relaxing a bit. "Fine. Diggle. Oliver told me we couldn't have a relationship and I completely understand the reasons why. I'm perfectly okay with keeping things platonic," she told him.

He narrowed his eyes a bit and bit his lip. "So wait... he told you? It wasn't up for discussion?"

She shrugged. "We're on the same page, Diggle."

"Are you? You get a say too, Felicity."

"Please don't say anything to him about it. Please. It's done."

Diggle grit his jaw, causing a muscle to jump. "I shouldn't say anything to you about this but Felicity... you didn't see him after the Dodger. The man was a wreck."

"It doesn't change anything," Felicity said. She was saved from further discussion by the sound of Oliver's comm coming to life. They sprung to action, tracking the action as Oliver evaded the police and tried to stop Helena before she did something she could never take back.

He was successful, even though Officer Hall was injured by Helena as she escaped. Once Oliver was safely on his way back to the foundry, Felicity allowed herself to relax, slumping back in the chair at her desk. She willed her heart to slow, her nerves to settle, the adrenaline to stop pumping through her. Would she ever be able to handle Oliver putting himself in danger like that? She was going to have to if she didn't want to damage their partnership.

It'd only been a month or so, but the work that she, Diggle, and Oliver did to save and protect the city already meant so much to her. She enjoyed what she did and she enjoyed the men she did it with. John was quiet and observant, and he often seemed to know exactly the right thing to say. He was sharp-eyed in the field, capable, and brave. Back in the foundry, he was fun to joke with and he cared for her. She could tell that he did. She'd never had a brother, but if she had, she'd have wanted him to be exactly like Diggle.

Then there was Oliver. Felicity couldn't even think about him without warmth suffusing her. She definitely didn't get a brother vibe from him and she didn't think it was friendly either. Her biggest worry was that her feelings were one-sided. Oliver had been very clear with her that he wasn't interested in a relationship with her. She'd told him that she understood and agreed. So, regardless of how she felt, she had no plans to pursue it.

Felicity leaned back in her swiveling chair, thinking about what Diggle had told her about Oliver's behavior after the incident with the Dodger. She'd been so afraid, not just for herself, but for Oliver and Diggle and the mission, that she hadn't stopped to consider how he might have felt. In her mind, he'd been nothing but competent that night, chasing down the Dodger and recovering the heirloom, saving her life and apprehending the notorious thief. Sure, in the days since he'd been a bit distant with her, but she was quickly becoming used to the moodiness of Oliver Queen. There was no telling what he'd be feeling like on any given day and Felicity gave him a bit of slack. She could only imagine what he'd gone through for five years on that island alone and his reluctance to talk about it only make her more sure that it must have been bad.

Sometimes he frustrated her, especially when he was harsh with her or Diggle. Plus, he may have spent those five years on an island, but there were still vestiges of the privileged party boy there. Oliver tended to act entitled quite often and Felicity could tell he sometimes had a hard time understanding her middle class perspective. She and Diggle sometimes laughed about it when Oliver was out on a mission, just to let off steam. The joking was done with the utmost fondness, Felicity told herself.

Because at the end of the day, Felicity respected Oliver. He had every reason in the world to not only go back to his selfish ways but to withdraw completely. Instead, he was working hard to protect his city and do the right thing. He got no recognition for the good he did. In fact, the media loved to paint the vigilante as some sort of criminal. But that didn't stop Oliver. He might push her and Diggle quite a bit, but she knew he pushed himself so much harder.

These thoughts were still buzzing in her mind when Oliver returned to the foundry. He looked haunted and Felicity waited until Diggle wished them both goodnight and left before she approached him.

"So, she got away?" Felicity asked carefully. Oliver stood at the table where he kept his quiver, running a finger along an arrow, a pensive look on his face.

He nodded. "Yeah." His voice was hoarse, strained.

Felicity hesitated for a second before she stepped forward and put a hand on his arm. "Oliver, you stopped her from killing her dad. That's the most important thing."

He turned suddenly and his eyes were hot on hers. "I let her get away. She hurt Tommy, threatened me, threatened you..."

"Hey... You're not responsible for the horrible things she does."

"I encouraged her, I ... I even bought her god damned outfit," Oliver growled.

"Diggle was telling me about her, he said that you tried to get her to fight for justice, not revenge."

"Yeah, and look how that turned out."

"But you tried. Oliver, you gave her a chance and every reason to choose the right path. She didn't and that's not your fault," Felicity pointed out.

"She shot McKenna Hall." Regret laced his words.

"Is that the officer that was flirting with you before?" she asked, pushing the niggling feeling in her stomach aside. Like she had any right to feel jealous.

He nodded. "We went to high school together."

"Is she... okay?"

"Yeah. With some therapy, she might even be able to walk again."

"Oh, Oliver." Felicity's heart went out to him and the lost look in his eyes. "That's not your fault."

Before she could second guess herself, she stepped right up to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Felicity pushed up onto her toes in order to hug him properly, hoping to convey a little bit of the comfort she hoped to give him. She heard him gasp a little as she did it and he stiffened for a moment against her. She was about to let go and step back when she felt his arms come around her and then he was hugging her back. They stood like that for a long moment and then she felt Oliver's breath against her neck.

"Thank you," he murmured.

She gave him a squeeze. "You're welcome."

Felicity went home not long after that. Oliver seemed to be feeling better in general but the tension between the two of them was only growing. She was afraid she'd let something slip or that she'd jump him in a fit of frustration or maybe just bite his head off. No, it was better to leave and let the evening end on a high note for the two of them. Tomorrow would be another long day, battling her ever-growing feelings and she needed a good night's rest to prepare for it.

—

Back at his room in the Queen mansion, Oliver exited his attached en suite and undressed quickly. His bed called to him and he climbed between the sheets with a barely stifled groan. It had been a hell of a day, one gnawing, guilt-inducing event after another. He wanted nothing more than to just put it behind him. Maybe he would get lucky and the nightmares that often plagued his sleep would give him a break tonight.

Oliver was exhausted, physically and mentally, but he lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. His mind was racing, refusing to settle. His legs, arms, and even his skin felt restless. He shifted, turning onto his side and his stomach before settling on his back again. Thoughts of a hug and reassuring words replayed in his mind, chasing him, forcing him to confront them.

It wasn't the first night that Oliver couldn't sleep for thinking of Felicity. Somehow, he'd thought that by officially defining their relationship as platonic and professional that he'd be able to put those thoughts of her behind him. Unfortunately, his subconscious had different plans. Thoughts, memories, and feelings about Felicity came to him unbidden and the harder he tried to ignore them, the more insistent those thoughts became.

Groaning, Oliver brought an arm up over his eyes. Tonight was one of those nights. As hard as today had been for him, she'd soothed him. It hadn't been an easy day for her either, but she hadn't complained once. She had brought him comfort and wrapped him in her arms. Just like that, she'd chased his demons away. Oliver suffered no delusions that the demons would stay away, but as long as she was around, he didn't have as hard a time battling them.

He wished he couldn't remember how her lips tasted or how her skin felt under his fingers or the sound of her moans in his ear. Those tantalizing, erotic memories existed to torment him, to surface when he was alone like this, and thinking of her.

Oliver wore only his boxer briefs so it only took a quick movement to have them shucked and tossed out of the bed. His cock was already hardening, aroused just by thoughts of Felicity. This felt wrong to him, he knew it was wrong, but as he gently grasped his hardening length, it also felt so good. He thought about what Felicity might do if she were here with him. Her hand would replace his, soft and small with those brightly painted nails of hers.

Her touch would probably be gentle at first, exploratory. He remembered how she'd touched him when she'd given him the blow job. Sweet Jesus, that had been fantastic. He closed his eyes and arched his neck back as he tried his best to pretend his large, roughened hand was hers. Oliver imagined her sweet, floral scent and her bright, interested blue eyes. He thought of her soft, plush lips, teeth biting into her bottom lip as she squeezed her fist around him and pumped.

Arousal pumped through him, his heart pounding in his ears, and the visions behind his eyes ceased to be leisurely scenes and became a quick series of images and scenarios, all of them starring Felicity. He saw her fisting his cock, her mouth sucking on him, her breasts swinging before his eyes, her straddling his lap and slamming down onto him, crying out with her head thrown back, her hair cascading down her back until it tickled the tops of his thighs. God, he could feel it, he could feel her.

His back arched as he strained, his fist working hard around his cock as his hips rose off the bed, feet planted on the mattress. He felt the tension building inside twist one more time, tightening exquisitely before bursting and he couldn't bite back the shout of Felicity's name as he started to come, his cock jerking as his release hit his abdomen in hot streams.

Oliver lay, breathing hard, for several long moments. Regret flooded him, not that he'd done what he had, but that his imaginings hadn't been real. He wished Felicity were here with him. The knowledge that she wasn't and that he'd pushed her away ate away at him until the pleasant sated buzz he'd been feeling faded away entirely, leaving him with an empty ache.

He caught his breath and rolled out of bed to pad into the en suite to wash himself up. He pulled his boxer briefs back on and returned to the bed, this time firmly avoiding any thoughts of his beautiful blonde partner.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I'm so sorry its been so long since I've updated. I've sat on this chapter for too long (my beta has even gotten back to me with the NEXT chapter) so I need to get back to this. The Olicity Hiatus Project (and then Comic Con) stole a lot of my attention the past few weeks!**

**We are getting close to the end, folks. Thanks for joining me on this ride.**

**Big thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for the beta. You're the bomb, darling.**

It was a miserable day. Oliver had stopped avoiding Felicity as much as he had been after the incident with the Dodger and that was good. But the whole situation with "The Savior" and his twisted determination to clean up the Glades by publicly murdering slum lords and gang bangers had her nerves on edge. Not only was this taking away from the investigation into what happened to Walter, but this new vigilante's ruthless methods scared Felicity badly.

She'd lead such a sheltered life before. It was funny; she'd never thought she'd been particularly sheltered, having grown up in Las Vegas, following her mother through casinos. But the truth of people's cruelty and ability to destroy each other had never been something she'd been confronted with before she'd joined Oliver on his crusade. It wasn't that she regretted her decision to join the team, but she hadn't anticipated how hard her life would become.

Today, she'd witnessed a man being shot in the head. He wasn't a nice man, hadn't made the best moral choices in his life, but he was still a person. And the reason he'd lost his life was that she'd been unable to direct Oliver to his location in order to save him in time. She'd never dealt well with failure, even in school. She was that girl in class who whinged when she'd miss a single problem on a test. Today, she lost. She missed all the problems on that test and a man died as a result.

When Oliver returned to the foundry, she was alone. She braced herself, waiting for his anger. If she felt this awful for having failed, surely he felt just as upset with her. Felicity toyed with an arrow, waiting for the hard words she knew were coming.

"Hey," Oliver said, walking up to her. "Are you okay? Where's Dig?"

She turned to him, blinking a little in surprise at his gentle tone. "I scared him off. I told him to leave me alone and I used my loud voice. I just... I failed, Oliver."

"Felicity... There's going to be days like this. I know you did everything you could but sometimes-"

She cut him off. "I watched him die. I've never seen someone die before. That was my fault."

"Did you try your best?" he asked, stepping up to her to lean against the table she was leaned against. "Did you do everything you could to try to get me to where he was?"

"Yeah. And I failed."

"Failing would have been not trying at all, Felicity. Hey, we're always gonna have days like this. You can't let it get to you."

"I can't not let it get to me, Oliver," she cried. She threw the arrow she'd been fidgeting with down onto the table. "If it doesn't get to me anymore, what does that say about my humanity?"

A cloud crossed his features and she felt sorry about what she'd said. She knew that Oliver struggled with his darkness, knew it more than he probably suspected she did. She diverted the conversation. "I'm not seeing anyone right now," she said and Oliver looked up at her sharply. "But if I was, I don't think I could explain what happened today."

He blew out a breath. "Felicity, no one would think less of you because of this..." He stopped himself after a pause and she saw him clench his jaw. She wondered what he'd been about to say.

"Maybe it's better to be alone," she murmured. The look Oliver gave her was filled with an emotion she couldn't name. She turned away, walking back to her computers before he could say anything else. There was nothing to say.

It all worked out in the end, thanks in no small part to Dig noticing that the locations Felicity had plotted earlier in their effort to save the slum lord were all old subway stops. Oliver was able to get to the Savior before he could murder Roy Harper. Roy, who happened to be Thea's new boyfriend. Felicity saw their romantic reunion on the Verdant cameras and smiled a little wistfully. All's well that ends well.

The melancholy mood she'd felt earlier was sticking around. She could go home and call up Stacy, but she couldn't tell her about this. She could probably vent about Oliver, however, and Stacy would surely be happy to gab with her about that. Maybe that's what she'd do later. Settle in with a pint of mint chip and a good long session of girl talk.

"Psst," a voice hissed over her shoulder. She turned a little in her chair to see Oliver come to a stop next to her. He looked down at her with a soft expression and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I just wanted you to know... that if you ever need to talk about your day, you can talk to me," he told her.

Felicity couldn't fight the smile that pulled at her lips. "Thanks. I'll remember that."

He'd been about to say something else when his gaze zeroed in on the subway maps that she still had up on her monitor. Moments later, the puzzle pieces slid into place and Oliver realized that the list he'd inherited from his father, the same list his mother had access to, involved the Glades. As he and Dig began to brainstorm what this could possibly mean, Felicity started to run a few searches based off of their hunches and hoped that this revelation might mean a lead in the search for Walter Steele.

She worked methodically, and Felicity tried not to think about the implications of what Oliver had just said. Before, she'd mentioned not having someone to talk to about her day in the context of a romantic relationship. And now, here he was, offering to be that person to her. Felicity didn't think that he'd changed his stance on getting involved in a relationship with her, but at the same time, she wondered why he would offer this to her.

Oliver Queen had to be the most frustrating man she'd ever known. She had to wonder what it said about herself that she put up with him.

Felicity stopped that train of thought right in its tracks. Anything she might feel for Oliver personally paled in comparison to how working for the 'Hood' made her feel about herself. Since graduating from college, she'd been an IT girl and had been content with it, but her life had been excruciatingly predictable and, well, boring. She could see now why Stacy had always been on her case to go out and have a good time and meet people. She hadn't been doing any of that and hadn't even noticed how stagnant her life had become as a result. Now, doing the work she did for Oliver and Dig, she was more than just an IT girl. It might not count as "dating" but wasn't saving the city so much more important?

It was. And she wasn't willing to risk that. Sure, she liked Oliver. She was attracted to him and he starred in almost all her dreams these days but being his friend was good for her. Better, probably, because he practically had a sign over his head flashing "DANGER" and not because of the vigilante business either. She wasn't interested in having her heart broken by anyone, but especially not Oliver Queen.

—

Oliver was regretting a lot of things these days. It was a common refrain for him since he'd been home from the island. He regretted not being the same Ollie that everyone knew from before, leaving everyone he knew vaguely disappointed in him. He regretted the mistakes he'd made since, like getting involved with Helena and causing a ripple in Laurel and Tommy's growing relationship. He deeply regretted the tension that existed between him and Tommy since the discovery of Oliver's secret identity. Tommy was hurt that Oliver hadn't trusted him with the information and it wasn't helped when Oliver suspected Tommy of being involved in a drug ring that was doling out Vertigo to Verdant club-goers.

But the thing he regretted the most right now seemed to be his decision to keep Felicity at arm's length. The reasoning had made sense in his mind at the time; don't enter into a relationship and save both of them pain when either he inevitably screwed it all up or when his dangerous lifestyle caught up with them and she paid the ultimate price. He couldn't bear for either to happen.

But staying away from Felicity proved a lot harder than he'd expected. The incidents with the Dodger and Helena were one thing, but he found the moments that truly tested his resolve were the quiet ones. Her on her computers in the foundry, peeking out of the corner of her eye as he worked out on the salmon ladder or as he and Dig grappled on the mats. The moments they were alone after Dig had left for the night and they would just talk about their day over a shared pint of mint chip ice cream. Sometimes he'd walk her out to her car, just to be sure she was safe- this was the Glades and all- and he'd have to fight the urge to give her a kiss before he sent her on her way.

It wasn't just that he wanted to date her; he just enjoyed spending time with her. She was easy to get along with, fun to talk to, and she made him laugh. Precious little made him laugh these days. So as the days went by, Oliver found his frustration increasing. He tried his damnedest not to take it out on Felicity, but that meant it often spilled out onto others.

Dig was currently pissed at him. According to Felicity, it was rightly so. He'd promised his buddy that he'd have his back in taking Deadshot out once and for all. Dig was determined to avenge his brother and Oliver had wanted to help him find that satisfaction. However... despite all his regrets, it seemed Oliver wasn't done making mistakes. At the time, he'd thought he was making the best decision given the circumstances by protecting Laurel and the orphaned child she was taking care of.

Hindsight was 20/20 and Oliver hadn't really needed to be there. Tommy was there for her, of course he was, and having Laurel and the child stay at the Queen mansion under heavy surveillance meant she was as safe there as anywhere in the city. Oliver had time to go help Dig out with the sting operation to flush out Deadshot but instead chose to chase down Edward Rasmus, the man responsible for targeting Laurel and the child. In fact, by killing Rasmus, the hit man then pushed back and nearly succeeded in killing both Laurel and the child.

It was a mess, that was for sure, and Oliver knew in his gut he never should have gotten as involved in it as he had. Dig was furious and had told him off before storming out of the foundry. And the look Felicity had given him had made guilt crawl in his gut like some horrible, slithery thing.

Which all led to today.

Oliver had found a laptop belonging to a corrupt accountant he was threatening and brought it back to Felicity. Oliver knew there was record on there of stolen money and he wanted those funds to be returned to the rightful owners before turning the laptop over to the IRS. She'd asked him again about apologizing to Diggle, to convince him to return to the team. Oliver regretted deeply the choices he'd made, but the apology stuck in his throat. And it hurt a bit, that it was so easy for Dig to walk away. Maybe he didn't really want to help with the mission any longer. If that was the case, Oliver wasn't going to beg him to come back. He did have his pride, after all.

Felicity disagreed and she let her displeasure over his reticence show. He couldn't bear her silent judgment so, while she was busy decrypting the laptop, Oliver decided to head up into the club to make himself a drink. He rather needed it, before noon or not.

When he got up there, he was surprised to see Laurel sitting at the bar, sipping a cup of coffee one of the staff milling around must have made for her.

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..." he said in greeting as he stepped behind the bar. He let the thought trail off.

"This coffee is terrible, Oliver," she told him with a distasteful look on her face. She set the mug down.

"That's what you get for ordering coffee in a bar," he remarked, turning to face her.

She looked upset, that was true, and he didn't think it was just about the coffee. Something was eating at her. And she was here, at Verdant. Alarms went off in his head.

"You look tired," he told her, wincing a little when he realized that might sound a bit harsh. "Too much work?"

"Too much crying," she told him. He looked down on her, unsure what to do. This had to have something to do with Tommy. Things had been so strained between he and his friend since Tommy had found out about Oliver's secret... clearly there was strain in their relationship as well and he hated to think he might be the cause of some of it.

Tommy had asked him when they'd argued if Oliver still loved Laurel. He hadn't known how to answer. He'd been in love with Laurel half his life and the thought of her had gotten him through some very tough times on the island. But was he still in love with her? He wasn't sure. He didn't think so. Their future together, which had always been a foregone conclusion back in the day, no longer seemed plausible. Laurel had tried to ask him a similar question not long after and Oliver should have realized something had happened between the pair. He'd put her off when she asked, knowing she'd been feeling vulnerable and quite certain that it wasn't the time to have this conversation with her. Now, it seemed, Laurel wouldn't be put off any longer.

"Tommy broke up with me," Laurel continued.

Shit. This was his fault. Oliver sighed. "What happened?" he asked, feigning innocence that he definitely didn't feel.

"I have no idea," she said. "Things were good, they were great, and then he's packing up his things and telling me that it's over." She looked at him, her forehead creasing a little. "Did he say anything to you?"

"No. Tommy and I haven't talked very much since he quit," Oliver admitted and that, at least, was the truth. "But he'll come around. It's probably just cold feet."

The instant he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. Laurel gave him a speculative look. "Like it was with you?" It sounded more like a statement than a question.

He didn't know what to say to that.

Her expression turned dry. "Oliver. You don't sleep with your girlfriend's sister unless you're looking to blow the relationship up."

Oliver sighed. Speaking of things he regretted... "If you still want to be with Tommy, do what we should have done. Talk to each other. And be honest."

Laurel was considering that when the door behind the bar slammed open. Felicity's voice rang out. "Oliver, I need to show you what..."

He turned to see Felicity standing there, her mouth popped open into a surprised "o".

"I just totally walked into a thing, didn't I?" she asked, looking embarrassed.

"Sorry, who are you?" Laurel asked. Oliver looked at her, surprised to see a closed expression on his ex-girlfriend's face. She regarded Felicity somewhat coolly.

"Nobody," Felicity replied automatically. "I mean, I'm not nobody. I'm someone. Obviously. And so are you. You're... Laurel? Right?" She looked to Oliver for confirmation. He nodded a little, unable to hold back the smile that threatened. "That Laurel. Gorgeous Laurel."

"This is Felicity. She's... a good friend," he told Laurel.

She looked surprised, taken aback. "Oh! Oh, I see..." She trailed off, looking closely at Felicity. Oliver could see her closing off and he couldn't help but wonder at it.

"Nice to meet you, Laurel. Uhm, I really hate to interrupt but there's something I really need to show you, Oliver." Felicity gestured vaguely behind her. She must have gotten something off the laptop. It must be big judging from the sparkle in her eyes and her agitated mannerisms.

He turned back to Laurel. She slid her gaze to him and raised her eyebrows. "I'll let you go, then. Thank you for the coffee... and the advice." She smiled then and he returned it. He hoped she took what he said to heart and talked to Tommy. He followed Felicity through the door and down the hall to the entrance to the basement.

Felicity started talking a mile a minute, something he was growing very used to, clearly excited about what she'd found on the laptop. He followed her to the computers so he could see what she was talking about since he was only able to understand about every other word she was saying.

It turned out what she'd found was a definitive link to Walter. The accountant he'd gotten the laptop from was involved with the secret organization behind the list of names Oliver had. And on the laptop was a record for a $2 million transfer, which smacked of a payoff. All that was needed was to trace that money and find out who had been paid off, giving them a name of someone who probably had something to do with Walter's disappearance. Moments later, a picture flashed up on Felicity's monitor.

It was Dominic Alonzo, a shady businessman that Oliver was familiar with. He ran a seedy underground casino and was exactly the sort that would arrange for kidnappings, given the right paycheck. He made a face at the screen.

"How many arrows do you suppose you'll need to put in this guy before he gives up information on where to find Walter?" she asked him.

"It's not that simple. We need to access his computer but without setting off any alarms. That's the tricky thing, this guy has layers of security and sneaking in is virtually impossible."

"Do I want to know how you know all this?" she asked.

Oliver shrugged. "I had a colorful youth."

"It sounds like we'll need all the help we can get. Too bad there isn't someone we could call," Felicity remarked pointedly.

"Felicity, stop. We can do this on our own."

"Well, then it's undercover then. Looks like someone is going gambling tonight."

"Not going to happen. I can't show my face in there. Oliver Queen, billionaire, isn't the sort of man who would be caught dead there."

Felicity raised an eyebrow. "What about this checkered past of yours?"

"I was little more than a kid then. Kids can get away with anything. I can't do it."

"Good thing I wasn't talking about you, then."

Oliver looked sharply at her, noting the calm, smug smile she wore. "Absolutely not," he growled.

"I can count cards. Been doing it for years. Besides, it's all probability and mathematics. Have you met me? I know my away around a casino."

He wondered for a flash what that meant. "Felicity, I'm not-"

She cut him off, getting to her feet and invading his space. "Oliver. Your mission might be the names in that book, but my mission is saving Walter. For the first time, we have a real chance to find him. I'm doing this."

Oliver studied her for a long moment, noting the firm set of her jaw, the determined glint in her blue eyes and the flush on her cheeks. She continually surprised him with how strong she was, how unbending she could be in the face of doing what was needed to be done. He looked back to the monitor, at where the information about Alonzo was displayed alongside a recent news article about Walter's disappearance. She helped him with whatever he needed with little to no complaint. This was important to her and, if he was honest with himself, important to him too. Quite frankly, he owed her and he owed his family.

"Alright," he whispered, turning back to her. "But we do it my way." He leveled a gaze at her and she met it. He saw her tongue snake out to lick at her lips as she nodded. Instantly, his eyes were riveted to her mouth, at her bright, glossy lips.

He looked back up to her eyes to see that she was looking at his lips the way he'd been looking at hers. Her blue eyes were dark and he recognized the look on her face. Before he could stop himself, he was leaning down to press his lips to hers. She kissed him back instantly, as though she'd been expecting him to. Frustration still coursed through him; he absolutely did not want to put her in the crosshairs by sending her into that seedy casino, but he knew she was right that this was the best way to find out what happened to Walter. He wasn't as certain as she was that his stepfather was even still alive, but either way, they needed to know.

All thoughts of Walter fled his mind as Felicity's lips moved against his. He reached up to cup her face with one hand, the other reaching around her waist to pull her closer to him. He nibbled at her lip until she opened to him so he could stroke his tongue into her mouth. Her taste flooded his senses and he fought back a groan. He'd missed this so much that it hurt sometimes. Having her back in his arms was a miracle.

Then, Felicity was pushing as his shoulders until he released her. He kept his arm around her waist while they both fought for breath. She was leaning her forehead against his shoulder and he could feel her breath puffing even through the cotton of his t-shirt.

"We can't do this," she said quietly. Oliver almost thought he hadn't heard her correctly. Then, she pushed against him again and he released his hold on her so she could step back.

Felicity wrapped her arms around herself and turned away from him. As he watched her back, Oliver remembered all the many reasons he had for not pursuing a relationship with Felicity beyond what they did in the foundry basement each night. He cursed softly under his breath.

"Felicity, I'm sorry. I just- I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay, Oliver." She kept her back to him. "But it can't happen again."

Oliver took a big breath and calmed himself. God, she was right. Just because he couldn't seem to control his attraction to her didn't give him a right to toy with her.

"It won't," he promised. "Let's work on our plans for this mission, okay?"

She turned back around and smiled gratefully at him, even if it didn't quite meet her eyes. Her blue eyes looked downright sad. "Sounds like a plan," she said. "Thanks."


	12. Chapter 12

**Things continue to spiral out of control for Team Arrow. The undercover job at the casino was just the catalyst and while Oliver and Felicity both are quickly growing tired of their dance, the city needs saving and will not wait.**

**A/N: Thanks for the continued patience. I'm once again well ahead of where I'm posting and I hope to continue that trend. We're on the rapid downslide into the end of this story and I hope it lives up to expectation! Thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for her beta skills!**

Shit. Things were quickly going from bad to worse. Felicity had known this might happen when she'd first suggested she be the one to go undercover at the casino, but there'd still been hope that things would follow a "best case scenario" path.

But when had that ever been the case since she'd started working with Oliver?

Oliver had loaned her one of Thea's dresses, a long, red number with an exposed back. She'd had a good time doing her hair and primping for the evening, pretending to be someone else. It took her mind off the potential danger. As did her visit to Diggle's apartment earlier that day. She thought maybe if she explained to John that they needed him and that Oliver was just being stubborn, maybe he'd agree to come back. No such luck, of course. The only thing that would mend that friendship was a genuine apology and Felicity didn't see Oliver doing that any time soon.

So it was just her and Oliver tonight. Felicity had felt a little nervous at the prospect of going back into a casino. She hadn't stepped inside one in years, not since she'd moved to Starling City at the very least. The blackjack tables brought back memories but Felicity had refused to let it get to her. She had a mission to focus on. As she walked around the dim and crowded room, she thought of how Oliver had looked at her when she'd met him wearing the red dress. His eyes had lit up, taking in her form, but he hadn't said anything. He hadn't even told her that she looked good, which miffed her a little bit, but he was probably trying extra hard to keep things professional between them. She could understand that.

Her thoughts being on Oliver was the only excuse she had for the direction of her thoughts. As she'd "cased the joint" and relayed what she saw over the comms to Oliver, she'd let slip that it "felt good having him inside of her". Of course, she'd meant it soothed her to know he was listening and present if she needed his help but lord, her brain had a terrible way of phrasing things. Oliver had been amused but firm in redirecting her attention to the tables, which is where she was to do her card-counting and get the ball rolling on this operation. Oliver listened in, waiting outside on a fire-escape, just in case she ran into trouble, which she did.

The plan had gone perfectly. It wasn't long before she caught the interest of the pit boss and he pulled her from the table to bring her back to the office. What she was hoping for was a slap on the wrist and a ban from the casino. She could surreptitiously plant the bug on Alonzo's computer while she was in there, then be released. No harm, no foul.

Still, her nerves had ratcheted up as she'd been lead back through the halls towards the office. Alonzo had reacted just as she'd thought he would, reprimanding her. She'd placed the bug and was about to leave when the other shoe had dropped. Which led her to where she was right now; held firm by a guard while Alonzo plucked the comm from her ear.

"Cheaters like you almost always work with a partner," he said smugly as he sneered at her. He dropped the bug to the floor and crushed it with her foot. Felicity hoped, no, knew that Oliver would be on his way.

"You're going to be really upset when you meet my partner," she promised, sounding more brave than she felt.

As though on cue, they heard a crash from out in the casino area. Then gunfire, shouting and screaming from the patrons. Alonzo's eyes widened. He grabbed Felicity's wrist and yanked her to him. Glaring at his guard, he told him, "Go intercept him!"

Felicity thought it was rather backward of him to assume her partner was a man. Sure, he was a man but for all he knew, her partner could be some kick-butt woman in leather. Felicity was about to remark on this when Alonzo pulled her behind his desk and grabbed a gun from the drawer. He held it to her head and waited.

The crashing noises grew closer and a moment later, the door of the office exploded inward as Oliver kicked it, an arrow already notched in his bow. He strode in, aiming directly at Alonzo. The set of his jaw under the hood was firm and he radiated fury. Without a word, he fired the arrow, sinking it into the dead center of the dartboard behind Alonzo's head.

The greasy man glanced at it and smirked, his grip on her neck relaxing somewhat. "I heard you never miss."

"I don't," Oliver growled. A second later, the wall behind them detonated as the exploding arrow Oliver had used went off. Alonzo was thrown to the floor and Felicity along with him.

He didn't waste a second; Oliver was on Alonzo before the other man could recover and hauling him up by his collar and slamming him against the remnants of the back wall of his office.

"Where is Walter Steele?!" he demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Alonzo sounded genuinely confused.

"Six months ago! You had him kidnapped!"

"It was just a job," Alonzo gasped. Felicity got to her feet, bracing a hand on the desk. "I was given a name, I didn't ask any questions."

Oliver slammed him against the wall again. "Last chance," he growled, his voice low and dangerous. "Where is he?"

"Underground."

Felicity was unable to hide her gasp.

"You're lying!"

"I'm not," Alonzo insisted. "I delivered him, they killed him. I heard the gunshot. He's dead."

Felicity stumbled forward, her eyes already welling up. She hadn't let herself believe until that very moment that Walter could be dead. All of her hard work, trying to find him and now he was gone.

Oliver was still for a moment, silent. Then he pulled away as though he were going to let Alonzo go. His fist flashed out, nailing the sleazy jerk in the face, knocking him out swiftly so he crumbled to the floor.

Felicity bit back a sob, her arms hugged tight around herself, as Oliver pulled his hood back and turned to face her. She knew she was upset and she knew it showed on her face, but she was unprepared to see the naked pain on Oliver's features. Her heart twisted painfully and she was stumbling forward before she could think to stop herself.

Oliver caught her, pulling her to him in a crushing hug. He held her there for a long moment, letting her tears soak the soft fabric of his hood. There was nothing to say.

—

What a hell of a night. After the casino, after he'd dropped a devastated Felicity off at her home (and had to tear himself away from her), he'd gone home. He had to tell his mother and Thea about Walter. Part of that was because they deserved to know. Another part of that was he wanted to see his mother's reaction. If she truly was behind Walter's abduction, her reaction to what he said would be very telling.

But it hadn't been that simple. His mother had turned ashen when he'd spilled the news. Clearly, this was news to her. However, when she'd rushed from the room, Oliver had need to follow her. He wanted to see what she would do, where she would go. He hated that he suspected her, but there were so many questions left unanswered.

He followed her clear downtown to the Merlyn Global building. Oliver was surprised. Malcolm had been his father's friend, an associate, not his mother's. But what could Malcolm Merlyn have to do with any of this? He was almost afraid to ask. But he'd come this far, he had to see this through.

As he'd listened in, he'd learned that the Undertaking was Malcolm's brainchild and that Walter was still very much alive. Moira had calmed after the other man had given her proof in the form of video surveillance. Oliver's blood boiled as he eavesdropped. She knew that Walter had been abducted and who had done, and she'd said nothing! All these months, while Thea had been beside herself with worry, her own mother had been involved. He felt like he was going to be sick.

He couldn't go back to the mansion. If he saw his mother right now there was no telling what he would do or say. So Oliver went to the only place he could think of where he could think this through in person.

He sat on the cold, hard floor of the foundry basement for at least an hour before Felicity arrived. By the time she arrived and turned the lights on, revealing where he sat against the column, he knew what he had to do to track Walter's location. And he knew he needed Felicity's help to do it.

She paused when she saw him and he waited for her to break the silence. She did, wiping her hands on her wool coat and moving further into the basement towards him. "I've been sitting in the dark all night too," she told him. "It's hard to sleep when all I can think of is all that time I spent tracking leads. It was all pointless, wasn't it? He was already dead."

Felicity stopped at one of the tables, setting down her tablet and he glanced over at her, noting the defeated slump of her shoulders. He looked away as she turned to him again and began walking towards where he sat. "I can't imagine what your family is going through."

That was Felicity through and through. Always worrying about how others were coping, feeling their pain. Her empathy was one of the things that kept drawing him to her, he knew that. He had to relieve her mind, not just to set her at ease but because he couldn't bear her to waste her pain on his mother like this when she was so culpable.

"Walter's alive," he told her, looking straight ahead.

Felicity stopped a few feet before him. "What?" she breathed. "But Alonzo said-"

"I need you to pull up Malcolm Merlyn's phone records," he growled, all but spitting the man's name. To think, he had saved that monster's life when all along he'd been responsible for everything that had gone wrong. It turned his stomach again. "He made a call from his office to wherever Walter is being kept at 10:30pm."

"Malcolm Merlyn," she said, sounding confused. "Tommy's father? What- Why would he kidnap Walter?"

"Felicity." He looked at her then, meeting her gaze.

She didn't say another word as she turned to her computers and began to run the search. He knew she could find the information much more quickly and much more stealthily than he ever could.

"LUD shows he made a call to a tenement complex in Blüdhaven."

Oliver got to his feet and crossed to where she was so he could look over her shoulder.

"Can you pull up a satellite view?"

Her fingers flew over the keys as she quickly did as he requested. Moments later, they were looking at the complex where Walter was being kept and could even see where guards were posted. Oliver devised a plan right away, determined to save his stepfather and put an end to this madness once and for all. His fists clenched as he arranged the details and Felicity stood next to her computer as she watched him prepare to leave.

"Be careful," she told him. "Save him, but don't take any extra chances."

"I promise I'll bring him back. This ends now." His jaw hurt from clenching. His body screamed at him to act. Action would help distract him from the betrayal that threatened to devastate him.

"How did you find out?" she asked softly.

"My mother. I followed her to Merlyn. She's involved, Felicity." Oliver couldn't keep the pain out of his voice.

He felt her hand on his arm as he reached for his bow. "Oliver, I'm so sorry," she said.

He shut his eyes tight. "I didn't want to believe it. Dig said she was involved and I didn't want to think that she could-"

"No one wants to believe their parent is capable of something like this," she told him. "All you can do now is try to fix it. You can do it, Oliver."

Her confidence in him bolstered his spirits. Oliver smiled at her, wishing he could take her in his arms and kiss her, to thank her for her support in the best way he knew how. But that was a bad idea and she wouldn't appreciate his mixed signals. Sighing, he settled for placing his hand over hers and squeezing.

"Thank you," he told her sincerely.

—

Oliver had done it. He'd saved Walter, brought him back alive. Felicity had listened anxiously on the comms as Oliver had battled his way through the guards that stood in his way, proud of him in a way she could never fully put to words. He had promised her he would work to save Walter when she'd first joined the team and he had followed through on that.

Felicity knew it had nothing to do with her, but he'd still done it and she was so glad. Walter was taken to the hospital right away. He was okay, unharmed, but slightly dehydrated and malnourished. She wanted to stop in and visit him while he was there, bring him some flowers and let him know she was glad he was okay.

When she knocked on the partially open door of Walter's hospital room, she noticed his room was already filled with his family. Thea and Moira were embracing him, gushing over him, while Oliver stood at the foot of his bed. For a brief moment, she thought about turning and fleeing, not wanting to barge in on an intimate family scene. But then Oliver turned and caught her eye. He beckoned her forward.

"Hi," she said. "I wanted to stop by and... this is a family thing, isn't it? I can come back later."

Moira released Walter and turned to look at her, happy tears still in her eyes. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Oliver stepped over to her, placing a hand on the small of her back and bringing her further into the room. "This is Felicity. She's a very good friend of mine."

"And mine as well," Walter agreed. "It's good to see you."

She smiled and tried not to blush. Moira still looked at her speculatively, and Thea looked very curious, but Walter smiled warmly at her and she could feel the heat of Oliver's hand on her back through the fabric of her coat.

"You too," she said to Walter. "I'm so glad you're home safe. I brought you some flowers." She set them on the table next to the door. "I'll let you guys get back to your hugging."

Moira and Thea returned their attention to Walter, practically tackling him back to the bed with the force of their hugs. Felicity turned to Oliver and smiled at him. She squeezed his arm.

"Thanks for coming," he told her in a low voice.

"I should be the one thanking you," she replied. Before he could answer, she turned and left the room so that the family could continue their reunion in peace. There had been tension in Oliver's face and she knew he was still struggling with the revelations of his mother's involvement with the Undertaking.

Felicity knew he wouldn't want to hear it, but he was a hero. He'd brought Walter home alive and well, and he deserved all the credit in the world for that. He fought so hard every night to make Starling City a safer place. As she stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the ground floor, she admitted to herself that if she wasn't already half in love with Oliver Queen, knowing all that he did for everyone around him would have accomplished it all over again.

—

Oliver was glad his family had Walter back, but there was something about seeing the way his mother gushed over him that turned his stomach. He was all but certain she had something to do with her husband's disappearance in the first place. She knew something about the Undertaking and she might have had a hand in what happened to the Queen's Gambit as well. Oliver could barely reconcile that with the memory of the woman who had always kissed his booboos growing up, had always been there to help him when he needed it, had always done everything she could to take care of him and Thea.

After a few moments, he made his excuses and stepped out of Walter's hospital room. Maybe he'd catch up with Felicity in the parking garage and they could go grab some burgers together.

"Oliver," a familiar voice at his back called. He grit his jaw and fought to contain his rage before turning around to face Malcolm Merlyn.

While he suspected his mother's involvement, he knew that Malcolm was involved. This man was responsible for so much pain, not just for his family, but his own family. And perhaps even the city. He needed to find out exactly what the Undertaking was. That was now number one on Oliver's agenda.

"What a miracle!" Malcolm was saying. "How's Walter? The police are saying he was rescued by the vigilante."

Oliver schooled his expression. "Yes, he was."

"Has he said anything about his ordeal? Has identified any of his captors?"

Now that he was faced with it, Malcolm's deception was painfully obvious to him. Oliver wanted to grab his throat, squeeze, threaten to end this slime of a man once and for all. But he restrained himself. "No," he replied.

"Hmm. That's too bad." The other man could barely hide the smile that flirted with the corners of his mouth. God, he wanted to punch him.

"They'll get what's coming to them," Oliver vowed, meeting his eye. Malcolm paused and nodded imperceptibly. "I'm just glad my family is back together."

"We all are."

Oliver stared him down for another moment before a softer voice called out, "Ollie!"

He turned to see Laurel at the end of the hall. Without another word, he turned from Malcolm and walked to her, glad to put some space between them before he did something he shouldn't. At least not yet.

"Is Walter okay?" she asked when he reached her. "I saw it on the news."

"Yeah," he said. He noticed the pinched expression and his brow furrowed. "Are you okay?"

"Of course," she replied automatically. When he continued to look at her, she sighed. "I don't think now is a good time to talk about this."

"It's you and Tommy, isn't it? Did you talk to him like I suggested?" He was glad to focus on someone else's problem for a change rather than his own.

"I did. We talked yesterday and he told me the reason he broke up with me is that he thought you and I... still belong together."

Oliver sighed. Looks like this was his problem too. "You set him straight though, didn't you? You told him that we are over, right?"

"I didn't get a chance," she said. "He walked out on me. He's pretty upset and I hate to see him that way."

"Maybe I can talk to him," Oliver suggested. "I just want you to be happy. I want you both to be happy."

"He'll listen to you," she said. "If you tell him we're over, that you're not still in love with me, he'll listen."

"I will do whatever I can, Laurel, I promise. I'm sorry that this has caused problems for you.

"Thanks, Ollie. I appreciate it." She looked a little wistful, like she wanted to say something. But she stayed quiet and he was glad.

Yeah, he definitely had enough problems on his plate without coming in between his two friends. Plus, it was time that he cleared up something he should have cleared up long before.

—

Dig hadn't exactly made it easier on him to apologize, but with Felicity and the team and what they needed to do now to help save the city, Oliver knew he needed to do it. The other man relaxed once the words "I'm sorry" left his lips.

Oliver went on to explain that Dig was right, not just about Deadshot and Oliver's own messed up priorities, but about his mother and her lies. He told him that she was working with Merlyn, that they were planning something and how Oliver needed his teammate's help to stop them. Sympathy crossed Dig's features and he nodded.

"I'm here for you," he promised. "Thanks for the apology. I needed to hear that."

Dig invited him for a beer and Oliver was more than happy to take him up on it. As the two settled on the sofa and took long swigs of their lager, Dig chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Oliver wasn't finding humor in much right now and was desperate for something to lighten the mood.

"I did this very thing with Felicity just this afternoon," he explained.

"Seriously?" Oliver hadn't known a thing about it. She'd never said she was visiting Dig or told him about it afterward. Then again, they'd been fairly busy with the casino and Walter's rescue.

"Yeah. She knocked on my door and tried to get me to come back to the team," Dig told him. "We drank a beer and she told me that you needed me."

Oliver felt a tightness in his chest. "She wasn't wrong."

"I know. But I needed to hear you apologize."

"I should have done that right away." Oliver took a long drink of his beer before resting it on his knee. "Felicity was so upset with me about it."

"She cares about you," Dig pointed out.

"She cares about the team."

"And you care about her."

"Of course I do. She's important to the team. So are you."

"Dude. This is about more than just the team. I know you said you were going to keep your relationship professional but I'm here to tell you; you're failing miserably."

"It's not a good- Dig, I'm not- This isn't what she deserves. I can't do this to her. I don't even know if she feels anything," Oliver said, stumbling. Dig smiled at him sympathetically.

"You have it so bad, you can't even see what's in front of your face. Talk to her. And forget this crap about being good enough and who deserves what. That's just an excuse."

"It was just a one night stand, Dig," Oliver explained, his voice weak to his own ears.

"You don't believe that any more than I do, Oliver. I'll tell you this much: I've seen a change in you since she joined the team. When I first met you, you were a mess. I've been to war, I know what that does to a man and I saw it all over you. But then Felicity comes along and you changed. You focused. You became better. She makes you happy and I don't want to hear shit about how you don't deserve that because everyone does."

Oliver took another long drink and considered his friends' words. He always looked up to Dig, valued his insight. And what the other man was saying now sounded an awful lot like truth. Right now wasn't a good time to get into this but maybe after this threat was dealt with, maybe then he could do something about it.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hey everyone! We're getting so close to the end! I'm writing it right now, in fact. Thanks for being patient and I hope you love this! Thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for being my lovely beta! **

Once Dig was back with the team, everything was a whirl of activity in the foundry. The pieces of the puzzle were falling rapidly into place and Oliver didn't like the picture it was making one little bit. After the Dark Archer hit Unidac Industries, slaughtering the researchers there, Felicity did some hacking in order to find out what Unidac could have had that the Dark Archer wanted.

She reminded Oliver that Walter had been trying to acquire Unidac and it felt too much like coincidence to just let it go. There were some hidden records about some sort of device, a device that might already be in Starling City. They needed more information and as much as Oliver hated to admit it, he knew his mother was the source of that information. Together with Diggle, he devised a plan for the Vigilante to kidnap both him and his mother in order to interrogate her. It made Oliver's stomach turn, to put her in that position and to use her desire to protect him against her this way, but he reminded himself that the wellbeing of the city was at stake.

The plan worked and, with a little pressure from Dig (and a few bruises for Oliver), Moira spilled what the Undertaking involved. The device was meant to trigger an earthquake and the Glades specifically was the target. Merlyn was bent on revenge for the murder of his wife in the Glades years before and this was his twisted solution for "saving the city". With a heavy heart, he returned to the foundry and shrugged off Felicity's concern over the bruises on his face. He barely felt it over the emotional pain. He told Felicity that they needed to hack into the Merlyn Global system to get information on where this device was and how to disable it.

And of course they couldn't disable the device remotely. It made sense that a man as savvy as Malcolm Merlyn would have the proper safeguards on his mainframe. It meant they had to go to Merlyn Global in person and Felicity had to be a part of it since she was the one who had the technical knowhow to hack into the complicated system. The plan was tight, flawless. Oliver even prided himself on keeping his libido at bay when he had to swing himself and Felicity across an elevator shaft. Though, no one could blame him if the memory of how her body felt pressed against him lingered long after they'd left the building, safe and, as far as he was concerned, undetected.

While he was there, he went to Tommy's office. That was his cover for being in the building at all, but he had another reason for wanting to see his former best friend. Tommy was still furious with him about his identity as the Vigilante. He thought Oliver was nothing more than a serial killer. While that needled him, Oliver knew he couldn't dissuade Tommy from believing it, especially when the body count was so damn high. He knew who he was. But no, the reason he wanted to see his friend was to convince him to try to win Laurel back. Ever since Oliver's conversation with her at the hospital, he'd worried about his friends' relationship. Laurel still looked miserable and Tommy, well... This was something he could fix. He had to fix it. He owed it to both of his friends.

"What are you doing here?" Tommy growled when Oliver entered his office. "When I saw your name on my schedule I thought surely there was a mistake. We have nothing left to say to each other."

"I'm not here to go over what you think about me or beg you to come back to the club, even though we miss you there. I miss you, Tommy."

His friend glared, his eyes turning cold. "I'm sorry, I can't work for a murderer."

Oliver grit his teeth, wondering if he should say something about who Tommy's father really was. Maybe he would rethink working at Merlyn Global if he knew. But he'd been enough of a bearer or bad news in his friend's life. It was time to change that.

"I'm here to talk to you about Laurel." Tommy didn't reply but looked surprised. Oliver continued. "She told me that you think I'm still in love with her."

Tommy bared his teeth for a second. "Aren't you?"

"Laurel and I are over. We were over long ago. She loves you, Tommy."

"She loves you, too."

Oliver sighed. "I've loved Laurel for half my life but we were never good for each other in a relationship. Why do you think I ran from her, taking her sister with me? I'm not good for her but you are. When she was with you this last year, she was happy. I could see it in her eyes when you were together."

Tommy averted his eyes, but Oliver didn't miss the naked emotion on his face. "I love her, Oliver. She's always been a good friend but somewhere in the midst of everything I fell for her."

"I know and I'm so happy for you. I don't want you to lose that and I want even less to be the one who causes you to lose it. I love her but what I feel for her is friendship. Nothing more."

Tommy met his eyes, looking a bit hopeful.

"I promise you."

He nodded and Oliver nodded back. They stood awkwardly for a moment, but Oliver didn't think he was imagining the lessening of the tension between them.

"Will you talk to her? Please?"

Tommy nodded. "I will. Thanks... err... for telling me this."

"I just want you both to be happy," Oliver replied.

He'd left after that, wanting to make sure that Dig and Felicity were alright and had gotten out okay. He was anxious to get back to the foundry and see what information on the device they could find from Felicity's trackers.

After getting briefly held up by Thea and Roy in the lobby of Merlyn Global, the team finally got out and returned to the foundry together. Felicity chattered the whole way about how Dig had rescued her from a security guard and Oliver had to smile at her excitement. She might have complained about the heights in the elevator shaft, but being in the field had given her a surge of excitement that he found a bit infectious.

A weight was lifted and Oliver felt like he could breathe for the first time in weeks. The device was disabled and the city was safe. Oliver had succeeded in his mission and, as a result, he realized that he no longer needed to be the Vigilante. He had no purpose beyond fulfilling his father's wishes and, by stopping the Undertaking, _. For the first time in nearly six years, he believed he could just live his life and be Oliver Queen.

The possibilities were endless. With Moira and Walter's failing relationship, leadership at Queen Consolidated was on the rocks and he was now in a position to take up that role his mother had wanted him to take on ever since he'd come back from the island. He could also have a private life. The future stretched out before him in a way that it hadn't for so many years. Now he was left considering what he wanted that future to look like.

And who he wanted in that future with him.

Oliver looked to where Felicity sat, hunched over her computers. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to explore a relationship with her. His thoughts didn't even try to stray from that fact. If he got to live a normal life, he wanted to live it with Felicity at his side. He hoped she would feel the same and thought she might, but... he wouldn't know until he spoke to her about it.

First, though, he needed a little liquid courage. Oliver didn't like to drink as much as he once had. He liked to remain in control of his faculties as much as possible. But a shot of Scotch would be just the thing to soothe the nerves that were suddenly jangling at the prospect of having this serious conversation with Felicity.

He excused himself, telling Dig and Felicity that he would be upstairs in the club if they needed him. He'd no sooner let himself out the security door when he heard it open behind and he turned to see Dig standing there.

"What's up?" he asked his friend.

"I thought I'd join you," Dig replied. "You came up for a drink, right? I recognize that look on a man's face."

That made Oliver smile. He nodded and gestured towards the bar. The club wasn't open yet, sun still streamed through the high windows, and a few of the staff were milling around, getting things set up. Oliver walked around the bar and grabbed a bottle of his favorite Scotch and a couple of highball glasses.

Dig settled on a stool and Oliver took his place next to him. He poured the liquor and then took a drink without saying a word.

"Something on your mind?" Dig asked.

"You could say that," he replied.

"I thought you'd be happy, or at least happy as you can get."

"Oh, I am. Dig, when I started this whole thing, it was because I wanted to right my father's wrongs. That was his dying request to me. The names in the book are just steps along the way but by stopping the Undertaking, that's going to accomplish my goal all at once."

"So you'd just give up this whole Vigilante thing then?" Dig took a long drink from his Scotch.

"I don't think I can have a regular life and do this too. I'd like to see, if maybe I can't just be happy," Oliver explained.

His friend nodded grimly. "I guess I can understand that. So why are you up here having a drink then?"

"It's for nerve," he answered. Oliver took another drink, savoring the way the liquid burned like fire down to his belly. "I need to talk to Felicity."

"Oh."

He turned his head to see Dig's expression. The man looked surprised, considering.

"Yeah."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"What do you think I'm saying?"

"You have feelings for her. I know you said the night you guys had was a onetime thing but, listen man, I've been around you guys and I can see it's more than just that."

Oliver nodded before finishing off his drink. The warmth seeped out to his skin. "You're right. I do have feelings for her. I spent most of this year trying to convince myself that I don't. And then I told myself it was better, safer for her, if I didn't act on them. But now?"

"Now you have a chance to do that."

"Exactly." He stood up. "Which I shall attempt now, before the Scotch wears off."

"Good luck, man."

He'd barely gotten two steps before Felicity came running up to the bar, an excited expression on her face. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were dancing as she looked between Oliver and Dig.

"I found it!" she exclaimed.

The device. His talk with her was going to have to wait. She rattled off the location she'd gotten off the Merlyn network and Oliver left to suit up. He wanted to get this taken care of sooner rather than later; there'd be time to talk to her after the machine was destroyed. Dig patted his back understandingly as the two of them headed out to put an end to this once and for all.

—

He should have known it was too good to be true. How he'd managed to have such hope was a miracle at all and now that hope was crumbling around him. It was crumbling around all of them.

Oliver and Dig had hurried to the location Felicity had given them, only to find that the device had been moved. Merlyn must have detected their breach of his network and acted in time. That was the only explanation. It made Oliver furious; why couldn't they just catch a break already?

Time was running out and they all knew it. Felicity was doing everything she could to track the device again, but Oliver couldn't stand to sit by and wait. He suited up and went straight to Merlyn Global. It was time to put the pressure where it was needed, where it would yield results.

That hadn't gone so well.

Now, Oliver hung in chains from the ceiling of a damp, dark warehouse down by the docks, stripped to the waist, beaten and bloody. In hindsight, he couldn't believe he hadn't seen this coming, that he hadn't realized that Merlyn was the Dark Archer. It made perfect sense now, he thought disparagingly.

The water chilled his body, but his anger kept him warm enough to think. Merlyn had taunted him, so certain of his dominance and righteousness that it had turned Oliver's stomach. This was his best friend's father. While Oliver had known Malcolm was shady for a while now, he'd had no idea how truly evil the other man actually was.

Malcolm had told him that the reason Oliver couldn't best him was because he didn't know what he was fighting for. But as Oliver hung there from those chains, he knew Malcolm was wrong. He did have something to fight for. He would fight for the city, for his family, for his friends. For Felicity.

He had to get free. Time was even shorter now and Malcolm was determined to set off the device and destroy the Glades. The time to hesitate was passed and Oliver knew if he found himself confronted with Merlyn again, he wouldn't think twice about ending his life. Too many times he'd let this man best him and it wouldn't happen a third time. Oliver swore on that.

He studied the chains that held him and where they were fixed around pipes that ran along the roof of the warehouse. He thought that perhaps if he had enough momentum going, that the pipes would give against his weight and he could get free. It would require lifting himself up off the ground and dropping. It would hurt, he knew it would, but the pain would be temporary. Worth it.

Slowly and deliberately, Oliver began to pull himself up along the chains towards the ceiling.

—

"He should have been back by now," Felicity muttered for the fifth time. She'd been against Oliver going to Merlyn, but Dig had urged her to let him go. This was something he needed to do. But now it had been an hour and he still wasn't back and there was no sign of him on the comms... it wasn't like him to be out of contact the long.

"Something's gone wrong," she told Dig.

He heaved a sigh, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He nodded. "Alright, I think you're right. I wish he'd let me go with him."

"Me too. You said we should let him go."

"I know. I thought he had it handled. Obviously something happened. Do you have a way to track him?"

Felicity's mind was clouded with worry so it took her a few moments to realize the obvious solution. The boot tracker! Dig had rolled his eyes and made jokes about the idea but Oliver had insisted that fitting their boots with tracking devices just in case they ran into trouble in the field and she needed a way to locate them. Without even explaining to Dig what she'd realized, Felicity flew into action, bringing up the program on the monitor and typing in the commands. A moment later a map popped up with a blinking red dot.

"There! He's there!"

"How...?"

"The boot tracker! Dig, go get him. He's in trouble, I just know he is!"

Dig nodded sharply and hurried out of the Foundry. Felicity tried to calm down, telling herself that Dig would find Oliver and that it would all be okay, but she knew she wouldn't relax until she saw Oliver herself.

While she waited, she puttered around the foundry. She updated all the computers, dusted all the components, made sure the med bay was stocked and ready (just in case) and even began to draw up some plans for a possible renovation that she'd been contemplating. She'd have to pass her ideas by Oliver and Dig, of course, but she thought the space could be a lot more useable (and aesthetically pleasing). More lights, for one thing. Just because they were doing vigilante work down here didn't mean they needed to skulk around in the dark.

Finally, Felicity heard the door at the top of the basement stairs clank shut. Her heart leapt into her throat as she rushed to the bottom of the stairs to meet whoever was returning. Hopefully, it was both of them.

It was and she exhaled noisily with relief when she saw that Oliver was walking on his own. His face was bruised up though and there was a slump to his shoulders.

"Are you okay?" she asked, stopping herself from rushing forward and enveloping him in her arms.

"Have you found anything in Merlyn's files?" he asked, his voice rough.

Felicity swallowed. "The design schematics. I've learned some things."

Oliver nodded. He lowered himself into a chair with a slight wince. "Tell me what you've learned."

She bit her lip, studying him. He looked exhausted. Glancing at Dig, she stepped closer. "When's the last time you ate?"

"Felicity..."

"If we're gonna do this, we need to be fueled up and ready to go. Why don't I run over to Big Belly, pick us up some burgers and we can eat while I fill you in," she suggested.

He let out a breath and looked as though he was about to argue but then he met her eye. "You're right. Take Dig with you."

"I can handle it," she pointed out. "Let Diggle patch you up while I'm gone. I'll be back before you know it."

She grabbed her purse and hurried up the stairs. She should have grabbed some food while waiting for them to return to the foundry. She didn't want to be apart from him right then, not after she'd been so scared for him, but she had to do something or else she'd launch herself into his arms and never leave.

Big Belly was within walking distance of Verdant, thankfully, and it was a quick walk. She was just to the door when a throat cleared behind her, startling her. She turned to see Detective Lance standing there, fixing her with a hard look.

"Miss Smoak!" He stepped away from his car, stepping up to her. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

She swallowed heavily. Shit. This was it. She'd expected that her activities for Oliver would land her in hot water eventually but this had to be the worst timing she'd ever heard of.

"I was getting some burgers," she tried, her voice sounding weak even to her own ears.

"And now you're going to be coming downtown with me to answer some questions," he told her. "I can arrest you, if you would prefer, but it'd be easier if you'd just come on your own."

SHIT. "S-sure. Uh, I don't have my car..."

Detective Lance stepped back and gestured to his car. "I can give you a ride."

During the quick ride to the station, Felicity sent a text to Oliver, hoping he would see it. She was scared, yes, but she was more nervous about the time they were losing that could be spent trying to undo Merlyn's plot. She lay her head back against the seat of the car and cursed her rotten luck.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting. My beautiful beta had a busy week (AND a birthday! Happy Birthday lunarsilverwolfstar!). I hope you'll find this makes it worth it...**

**We're into the back stretch. I'm finishing up chapter 17 right now, in fact. The beta has chapter 15... we're nearly done! I hope you enjoy the detour I took with the Undertaking here. ;) It's been 14 chapters coming now.**

Felicity sat in the interview room, trying to ignore her terror. Quentin circled around her, not saying anything at first, but studying her with his shrewd gaze. God, she hoped Oliver had gotten her text.

"Not exactly a hardened criminal, are you?" Lance asked her.

"I'm just an IT worker," she admitted. "I'm not any kind of criminal."

He stopped at the other end of the table and raised an eyebrow. "What do you call computer hacking?"

"A hobby?" she supplied before she could catch herself. "That... I do not engage in. At all. That is against the law."

"Now you see, I have a whole mess of computer gobbledygook that says otherwise. We have tech guys here, see, and they've gone through your computer at Queen Consolidated. It seems you've been doing some extracurricular activities while you're at work. The sort of searches that a regular IT worker wouldn't be making but someone who was working with the Hood would. Can you explain that?"

She opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say, but Lance's phone began to chime from his pocket before she could say a word. Relief swept through her. She knew it was Oliver. It had to be.

"Saved by the bell," Lance quipped, not looking terribly pleased. "Excuse me."

He lifted the phone to his ear and listened for a moment. "It's funny you should call," he said. "I've got your trusty sidekick sitting right in front of me."

Whatever Oliver was saying was clearly not what Lance had been expecting. He stood up, his brow furrowed, as he stepped away from the table. "What? Now you're just trying to have some fun with me." Something in his voice told Felicity that whatever Oliver was telling him was major.

The Detective didn't say anything else, but listened with his back to her for another long moment before hanging up the call. She swallowed. "Sounds like you've got bigger problems than me," she suggested.

He finally turned back to her and jerked his head towards the door. "Don't leave town."

She didn't need to be told twice. She jumped up from her chair and hurried to the door of the interview room, jerking it open. Then she paused, turning back to look at Lance who suddenly looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. She took a deep breath.

"You know, I used to think the vigilante was a criminal too. But it seems to me that whoever he is, he's willing to sacrifice an awful lot to help the people of this city." Lance turned to her then, his gaze speculative. "That kind of makes him a hero, doesn't it?"

He didn't answer and she quickly withdrew. As she hurried from the station to hail a cab to take her to the foundry, she hoped that whatever she'd said would get through to the Detective. Everything would be a lot easier for everyone if they had Lance on their side instead of fighting them. And, from what she'd learned about the earthquake device, she was thinking they'd need all the help they could get.

—

Felicity was back at in the foundry by the time Oliver returned. He'd left briefly to change his clothes and see if he could rally his mother's support. He honestly believed that she didn't want to endanger the lives of everyone living in the Glades and he hoped that she'd be willing to help him find where Malcolm had planted the earthquake device.

It hadn't gone too well, mostly because his mother was emotional and then she'd received a phone call from Merlyn himself right there, informing her that the timeline for the Undertaking had been moved up. Malcolm planned to set off the device tonight which meant they were all out of time. Oliver couldn't waste any more time and he left for the foundry immediately, leaving his mother tearfully staring after him as he went.

After this was all said and done, provided they all survived the night, they were going to have to have a serious conversation.

His thoughts were heavy as he trotted down the steps of the foundry basement and he found Felicity at her computers, her fingers flying over the keys.

"Any luck?" he called out as he quickly crossed the room. Dig stood over her, squinting at the monitors.

"Yes, actually," she told him. "Thanks for the call to Detective Lance, by the way. Saved my bacon."

"I wasn't going to let you go down for me, Felicity," he told her. She flashed him a grateful smile. "So what have you learned?"

Quickly, Felicity explained that the parallel between subway map and the symbol on Oliver's list of names was more significant than they'd all initially assumed. Not only did it signify the area to be affected by the Undertaking, but it told them where to look for the device as well. As she explained, there was a dormant fault line running right under the Glades, and one of the defunct subway lines rested right over that fault. If she was going to plant an earthquake device, that is where she would put it and Oliver had to agree with her. He bent and pressed a kiss to her hair, he was so grateful for her insight.

"This is brilliant, Felicity. You're absolutely right," he gushed. His phone rang and he answered it. It was Thea.

She told him that their mother was holding a press conference, and she was confused and scared. Oliver asked her what channel it was on and she told him it looked like all of them. Not a good sign. He assured his sister that he'd see her soon and hung up. "Felicity, turn on the news."

She complied right away and the three of them watched as Moira Queen told the residents of Starling City about the Undertaking. Oliver's breath caught in his throat. She was warning the residents of the Glades, urging them to evacuate, even though it was incriminating her. But she incriminated Malcolm Merlyn too. Oliver worried for a moment what Tommy would think when he heard the news then shook his head. He couldn't be thinking about that right now.

At the end of the news conference, they could only watch with horror as his mom was handcuffed and led away by officers. Emotions boiled up within him and he turned away from Felicity's computers, walking over to where he kept his lockbox. He stood there, bracing himself against it for a moment.

"Oliver, I'm sorry," Felicity said behind him, her voice soft.

"Don't be," he said tightly. He straightened and opened the box. "She gave those people a chance." He pulled his spare bow from the box, the one that had belonged to Yao Fei. Merlyn, on top of everything else, had broken his bow. But if Oliver knew anything from his time on the island, it was always have a backup.

"From the schematics, it looks as though the device can be triggered by a remote. Merlyn could set it off at any time," she said.

"How do we shut it down?"

"We have to do it onsite, unfortunately. There's no way with this short notice that I can hack into the signal to the device remotely. I need to get to the device and disable it there."

Oliver reared back and he heard Dig grumble. "Hell no. You're not going out there, Felicity. In fact, I want you as far away from the Glades as possible."

"Oliver, you need me to disable these devices!"

"Diggle can do it." He looked to his friend and partner. "I need you down in the subway. Find the device. Shut it down."

"And leave you to fight Merlyn by yourself? Not a chance."

"I have to, Dig. This is my fight."

Dig shook his head. "He'll kill you, Oliver."

Oliver met his gaze. "I know." Regret lodged in his throat but he swallowed it down. "He's beaten me twice, and I don't know how to stop him."

"Alright." Diggle stepped up to him, his eyes sympathetic but his jaw set. "This time you're bringing something along that you didn't have the other two times. Me."

"I can't let you."

"It's not about you letting me, Oliver. A soldier never lets a brother go into battle alone. In case you haven't noticed, you haven't been alone since you brought me, us, into this."

Oliver glanced at Felicity then and saw the way she was watching him silently, tears shining in her eyes. She nodded slightly. He sighed and shook the hand that Dig extended to him.

"Which leaves me for the dismantling," Felicity said, smiling a little.

"This whole area is ground zero. I want you out of here."

Her eyes hardened and she stepped up to him as Dig fell back. "If you're not leaving, I'm not leaving. Besides, if I don't deactivate the device, who will?"

She met his eye and he knew there would be no budging her. Oliver didn't know whether to grab her and kiss her and beg her to never leave his side or grab her and shake her and shout at her until she understood just how scared the thought of her being in danger made him feel. Then, he paused. Something she'd just said gave him an idea

He stepped past Felicity to grab the burner phone from the desk and dialed Detective Lance's number right away. He answered on the first ring. "You were right." Obviously, Lance knew of his mother's press conference. No doubt the police station was a hive of activity now as officers tried to organize the sudden chaos.

"I need one more thing from you."

"What do I have left to give?" The detective sounded defeated.

"I know where Merlyn is keeping the device. It's in an abandoned subway station near Papp Street."

"How do you know?"

"That's where his wife was murdered." The whole reason for this Undertaking. It made so much sense.

"I need someone I can trust to deactivate the device. Can I trust you?" he asked. There was silence on the line and Oliver looked up to meet Felicity's eye. She nodded at him, understanding. "We have a mutual friend that I think can talk you through it." This would be far preferable to her actually being out in the subway station herself. The foundry was by no means safe, but it'd be a lot safer than Ground Zero if something went wrong.

Lance knew who he was talking about. "She says you care about the people of this city. That the city needs you."

"Right now, Detective, it needs you."

Oliver hung up the call and immediately placed another. This time to Tommy.

"Hello?" His friend sounded shaken.

"Tommy. It's Oliver. Are you okay? How is Laurel?" he asked.

"Oliver... my father. He-"

"I know. Tommy, I'm sorry. I just found out myself. Did he hurt you?"

"No. He... we got into an argument. He knocked me out and he's gone but I'm okay. I can't believe he'd do something like this."

"Listen. You heard the news report about the Glades? Tommy, CNRI is there. Laurel is there. You have to get her out, okay?"

"Oh god, you're right."

"Please, make sure she gets out of there, gets out of the Glades. I need you to do this for me."

"I need to do it for me too. I love her, Oliver."

"I know you do. Have you talked to her?"

"Yeah, I went over to her place last night. We cleared a lot of stuff up between us. Thanks for the push in the right direction."

"Glad I could help," Oliver replied. As he hung up the phone, he began to think that maybe they'd all make it out of this night alive after all. He met Felicity's eye again and couldn't deny that there was some sun shining through the clouds.

—

Oliver and Dig left right away to confront Merlyn and bring him down once and for all. Felicity had to force herself not to think too much about her two favorite men fighting someone who had, as of yet, been undefeatable. There was enough to worry about on her plate with directing Detective Lance on how to disable the device.

She had a comm set up so they could talk as he made his way into the abandoned subway tunnel where Oliver was certain the device was located. They chattered a little as he moved and while he never really apologized for dragging her into the station for questioning, Felicity felt like perhaps they were putting that ugly scene behind them. She knew Lance wanted what was best for Starling City; he wouldn't be working with her right now if that weren't the case. He was a good man with strong principles and she could admire that. She admired it even more when he wasn't actively trying to put her behind bars.

She also monitored Oliver and Dig, but her nerves were fraying rapidly. Merlyn was a dangerous man and Oliver was in danger. She loved him. It was a startling realization, sitting there in that dim foundry basement, the city in chaos all around her, the light from her monitors filling her awareness and Lance's raspy voice in her ear. She felt the truth of it down in her bones, but instead of making her want to fold in and protect her heart and the man she loved more than was wise, she felt the strength that the knowledge gave her. Her back straightened and she directed Lance through the schematics of the earthquake device, envisioning the wires and circuits as though she was the one sitting in front of it.

She could do this. She could get this device dismantled and do her part to save this city. And Oliver would do his part, defeating Merlyn so he wouldn't threaten the innocent ever again. Then, after their work was done, they could come together, they could talk and she could tell him how she felt. Because he needed to know. Regardless of how he might feel about her, she wanted him to know he was loved, and loved by her.

There was a moment where things looked bad, the device triggered and was going to go off and Felicity had to listen in as Detective Lance made an emotional phone call to Laurel, begging her to get clear of the Glades and telling her that he loved her. She held back her own tears, going over the schematics again and again, looking for the answer. Then, it jumped out to her. As Lance hung up, she directed him back to the device, her voice urgent. She wasn't going to die now, dammit.

After a few minutes, the device powered down and Felicity knew they'd been successful. The relief was apparent in Lance's voice. She triggered the comm to Oliver to let him know that the device was down.

"Oliver. Lance did it," she told him. She could hear him breathing hard and hoped he was okay.

"It's over," he replied, his voice rough.

There was a noise on the other end, another voice, but it was further away and she couldn't make out the words. It didn't sound like Dig which meant... Merlyn. He didn't sound strong, he sounded worse than Oliver. Felicity took comfort from that, even if she couldn't hear his words.

A moment later, Oliver's voice filled her ear.

"Felicity," he said and he sounded absolutely wrecked. "There's another device. There's two of them."

He'd no sooner finished speaking when she began to feel the world around her shake. A deep, rumble sounded in the middle distance and the ground rolled under her chair. She gripped the table as items spilled off shelves and crashed to the floor. The lights over her head began to spark and flicker. She cried out.

"Oliver!"

—

Oliver could only listen over the comm to the heartbreaking sound of Felicity's sobs as he stood with Dig at the edge of the Merlyn Global roof, watching with horror as the Glades crumbled. He could hear Felicity trying to explain to Detective Lance what was happening, but she could barely get the words out. Fear gripped his belly as he could hear the fear in her voice, the anger in Lance's.

"Laurel!" the other man was bellowing. "She's at CNRI!"

Oliver's eyes snapped over to the east side of the Glades, the area that seemed most affected and the area where he knew CNRI was located. Buildings were crumbling as the shaking continued. Oliver's heart caught in his throat, and he hoped that Tommy had been able to get to Laurel and get her to safety in time.

"Oliver?" Felicity said, her voice small but steadier this time.

"Felicity," he said, relieved just to hear her voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied tearfully and he could hear the sound of crashing and exploding in the background and he wondered how much she was keeping from him. "The damage seems... to be contained on the east side..."

That confirmed his suspicions. Still, the foundry was close to the border on the east side and the building, while sturdy, was old. "Felicity, I want you to get out of there, okay? Get some place safe."

"I can't, I-" She cut off for a moment. "There's debris."

One last horrific shake rattled through. Oliver could feel it swaying the building and he heard a thunderous noise on the other side of the comms. Then... silence. Sirens wailed in the distance. The rumbling had stopped and he could no longer hear anything on the comm.

"Felicity?"

No answer.

"Felicity!"

He looked to Dig, stricken. The other man stared back, his eyes wide and Oliver saw his fear reflected there. No reply could only mean that she was hurt and unable to do so.

He was faced with a decision right then. He knew CNRI was in danger and, according to Lance, Laurel was there. But Oliver had told Tommy, when he'd happened upon his friend before finally confronting Merlyn, to get Laurel and get to safety. So there was a chance that he'd gone to CNRI and was with her right now. Of course, that could mean both of his friends were in danger and needing help.

But Felicity was most definitely in danger and she was alone. No one else knew where to find her and he wasn't sure anyone else could. The wound in his shoulder from where he'd pierced the arrow through in order to take down Merlyn protested as Oliver moved, bending down to grab his bow. He wasn't in much shape for much of anything, but he knew that until he knew Felicity was safe and sound, he wouldn't be able to rest.

He looked to Dig. "Go. Go to her. I'll make sure Tommy and Laurel are okay and keep you posted."

"You're hurt too, man," Oliver told him, gesturing to the knife wound where Merlyn had landed a lucky throw.

Dig touched the jagged edge of his torn jacket and winced. "Nothing I can't handle. You're injured too. Look, we'll patch up when we know everyone is safe. Deal?"

Oliver grimaced. "Okay, deal."

"Go to her, man. She needs you."

Oliver Queen did not need to be told twice.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Thank you for all the great reviews! You guys are the best. SURPRISE! Early update! My beta worked hard to make sure you guys weren't left hanging for long. Bless her! All thanks for that go to lunarsilverwolfstar.**

**We are COMPLETELY off canon here. And so very very close to the end.**

Dust and smoke filled her mouth as she tried to take a breath. Incredible pressure kept her from getting a lungful of the thick, and probably dangerous, air and pain sliced through her side as she shifted. She tried to blink her eyes open, but they felt gritty. Trying to move her hands to her face revealed that they were trapped. She groaned out loud, hearing her voice echo eerily.

"Oliver," she called. There was no noise, nothing. She fought to recall what had happened so that maybe she could find a way out of the predicament she found herself in. She'd been talking to Oliver on the comms, the shaking was starting to subside. She was scared but his voice in her ear grounded her, kept her there instead of spiraling down into panic.

But then there'd been a sharp jolt, just as Oliver was urging her to get out of the basement, to get someplace safe. There hadn't been time to even dive under the desk. She'd been knocked out of her chair and then... nothing.

Something must have fallen on her, a support or a beam or some other piece of the infrastructure. She shook her head, ignoring the nauseating spin that it caused, trying to clear her eyes of whatever was preventing her from opening them. Finally, she was able to turn her head enough and she could feel dust falling away from her face as she did so. Cautiously, she blinked her eyes open. They were gritty and hurt, but she could see... a little. Her surroundings were blurry and it took her a moment to realize that was because she didn't have her glasses. They must have been knocked off her face. Felicity blinked a few more times and she could tell the lights were flickering, but the foundry basement was otherwise very dark. A large shape hovered over her chest, pressing down. She couldn't quite see what it was and she still couldn't get her hands free to feel it.

She wriggled around a little, trying to test what she could move and what she couldn't. Her legs were free, she thought. She kicked them, feeling for debris. A stinging pain on her shin made her suck in air suddenly. There must be a nasty scrape. Felicity tried to wiggle her fingers and was able to manage that, but she still couldn't move her hands. Experimentally, she filled her lungs a few times and then, holding her breath, she called out as loudly as she could. Maybe someone would hear her.

"Help!"

Her voice echoed, the only other sound being the steady drip of water. Hysteria crawled up her throat, threatening to spill out. Felicity clamped her jaw, refusing to let the panic win out. She was breathing and as long as she didn't move too much, the pain wasn't terribly bad. Oliver would come by at some point, she was sure of it. She just hoped he came sooner rather than later.

What if he'd gone to CNRI to check on Laurel? She'd heard what Lance had said on the comms when the quake started. Uncertainty crept in. Oliver didn't talk very much about Laurel, but Dig had filled her in when she'd joined the team. Apparently, Oliver and Laurel were a big item back before the island. A part of her she wasn't very proud of was worried that maybe he'd want to rekindle things with Laurel. She'd seen the other woman and there was nothing remotely similar about the two of them. Felicity couldn't be more different from Laurel Lance if she tried. Why on earth would Oliver Queen want her when he could have Laurel?

Despair began to settle over her as the minutes ticked by. Felicity knew she was working herself up into a world-class funk but thought that given the circumstances, she was excused. Tears ran down her cheeks before she even knew she was crying. A small whimper escaped and she could hear it echo off the destroyed walls of the foundry basement.

But then, she heard something else. It was a small echo from the other side of the secondary entrance to their secret little lair. Felicity's heart leapt with hope. Again, she took a deep breath and shouted, "Help!"

There was a pause and then she heard, faintly. "Felicity!"

It was Oliver. The tears came faster and freer and a sob escaped. A moment later she heard a loud crash and he called her name again. It was clearer this time, he sounded like he was in the same room at last.

"Oliver!" she cried.

She was sobbing harder now and couldn't even help it. She was so damn relieved that he was there.

"Hold on, Felicity. I need to move this beam." He grunted and she heard material shifting. Some of the pressure on her chest lessened and she gasped.

The influx of air burned her lungs but it felt marvelous. She listened as Oliver grunted, shoving against the beam that had her pinned. Soon, she was able to move and she tried to wiggle out of the space she was in. Her side protested, pain stabbing her there sharply but her desire to be free of her prison overruled anything else. As soon as she'd shifted free, Oliver released the beam and it fell back with a gritty noise.

A moment later, warm hands gripped her arms. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Oliver asked.

She looked up to meet his eye. His face was streaked with sweat and a little dust. She noticed some fresh cuts and bruises on his face. Then her eyes lowered to his chest and she saw a wet, red stain on the front of his jacket. She gasped.

"Oliver! What happened to you?" She reached up, stalling her fingers before she could touch him. He shook her a little.

"Tell me you're okay," he insisted.

Felicity's mouth dried at his desperate, insistent tone. She paused for a moment, trying to take stock. "My side hurts a little. I think I've got some scrapes. I'm fine, Oliver. What happened to you?"

"Long story." He helped her to her feet, his arm supporting across her back.

"I've got time," she muttered. They maneuvered out of the worst of the debris. She could see now that some of the lights were still functioning, lighting the room dimly, shadows being cast thickly and ominously. Felicity looked back to see that her computers, her precious babies, had been smashed by the beam that fell. In fact, the desk and the computers had probably saved her from being crushed to death, from the look of it. Chunks of the ceiling and the walls littered the foundry and the place was a wreck.

Oliver guided her to an overturned chair and she righted it before dropping into it. He pulled another over and sat with a groan. "Where's Dig?" she asked. "What about Laurel? I heard she was at CNRI."

"Dig went to check on her and Tommy," Oliver informed her. "I need to let him know you're okay. He was almost as worried as I was."

Her heart skipped a beat. "You came to me," she breathed. "You didn't go to Laurel."

Oliver shook his head, his eyes warm on her face. "I had to make sure you were okay. If I lost you..." He trailed off and took a deep breath. He winced and her eyes went to his wound.

"We need to get you patched up." She looked towards the med bay. The supplies were scattered. The whole foundry was a mess of dirt and the lighting was so dim she hesitated to try to do anything besides get the hell out. "But we can't do it here."

He glanced around and nodded. "Agreed."

"Let's grab some supplies and we can go to my place. I'll patch you up there," she told him.

"What about your side? Your cuts? You need patching too, Felicity."

"I'd rather not investigate down here in the dust, if it's all the same to you," she said.

"Good point. Let's move it then." He stood and reached for her hand, and she let her fingers slip into his. They tightened as he pulled her to her feet and he didn't let go for a long moment afterward. She almost said something then and there, but it still wasn't the right time.

First things first. She needed to see to his wound and they needed to come down off of this tragic night. But they would be having a talk, very soon, about what was going on between them.

—

He got her home aboard his Ducati. Felicity's Mini, while still intact, was stuck in the lot until some debris was cleared. Between the two of them, even with their injuries, they probably could have managed the task just fine but she seemed just as anxious to get out of the dirt, death, and destruction as he was. Oliver handed her the spare helmet before he fit his own over his head. She swung onto the bike behind him and he could feel her thighs gripping his hips while her arms snaked around his middle, mindful of his wound.

It felt right.

He steered through the streets, the going becoming easier and less chaotic the further from the Glades they got. He knew he was breathing easier and imagined she was too. The sight of her townhouse was as welcome to him as the sight of his own home. Before he could examine that particular feeling too closely, he turned off the bike and set the kickstand. Felicity walked to the door and he trailed behind. He noticed she limped a little bit and imagined the soreness was setting in quickly now that the adrenalin had had a chance to subside.

Once inside, Felicity directed him to a chair in her kitchen while she dug out the medical supplies from the bag she'd packed them in back at the foundry. Neither of them spoke as she puttered around, gathering water, towels and setting everything within easy reach. Then, she stood before him and gestured at his chest.

"Take off your jacket." A pause. "Do you need help?"

"I think I got it," he said, wanting to protest that they should look after her own injuries first but knowing that it would be a waste of breath with her. He unzipped the jacket and began to peel it from his shoulders when a stabbing pain made him gasp.

"Here, let me help," she said. Her fingers pushed his aside and she carefully drew the leather over his shoulders and down his arms. He sighed with relief as she regarded the shirt he wore under his jacket. "This will have to come off too."

Oliver lifted his hands to remove it but she batted at them. Carefully, she drew the fabric up his torso, hissing slightly when she saw the bruising on his ribs. She continued in her task though, pulling the fabric up and motioning for him to lift his arms. He winced against the pain in his chest and shoulder when lifting his left arm. A moment later, the garment was off, leaving him sitting in her kitchen in just his leather trousers. She set aside the shirt with the jacket and studied his wound carefully.

Oliver, in turn, studied her. Her ponytail was destroyed, the hair around her face hanging in wisps. There was a small cut above one of her eyebrows, and her face was smudged and dirty. Tear tracks through the dust pulled at his heart, showing him that she'd cried before he'd reached her. Her cardigan was torn at the shoulder and her dress was dirty and probably unsalvageable. Determination creased her forehead as she touched the edges of his wound gently. She looked over his shoulder to where the arrow had gone clear through his flesh and he saw how her lips tightened.

"I hope you got him back just as well," she murmured as she reached for the water and antiseptic so she could clean him up before stitching him up.

"Actually, that's how I got him," he told her. Her fingers stilled just before she could dab the wet cloth over his wound.

"What?"

He explained to her how he'd finally managed to take Merlyn down, how he'd had to make that split second decision to ram the arrow through himself in order to get to Merlyn. It had been an easy choice at the time; he'd been so focused on defeating that madman. But as he looked up at Felicity's horrified expression, he began to wonder.

"You could have killed yourself!" she gasped.

"I had to take him out, Felicity. He was a danger to everyone in this city." When she didn't reply, but set to the task of cleaning his wound, he sighed. "It would have been worth it."

Finished, she threw the cloth on the table and huffed angrily. "Don't you ever say that. Your life is not worth some scumbags. I don't ever want to hear you say that again."

Oliver was humbled by the vehemence of her reaction. "Felicity..."

"No. You listen to me, Oliver Queen. Regardless of what you think about yourself and your life, you are important to other people. Your mother, Thea, Tommy, Laurel, Dig... me..."

Her eyes were shining but no tears fell and he saw nothing but truth there. He swallowed thickly. "I didn't-"

"Just," she interrupted, holding up a hand, "remember that the next time, okay? For god's sake, take care of yourself."

He nodded and she resumed the work of cleaning his injury. The antiseptic stung and he grit his teeth against the pain. The soft coolness of her fingers soothed him more than a bit and he tried to focus on that. As soon as she was done cleaning, she set to stitching up the torn flesh. He knew she hated doing this and often left the task to Dig. She claimed to have an issue with needles. But if she was bothered tonight, she didn't show it. Felicity worked efficiently and before too long she had him sewn up both on his chest and at the back of the shoulder. She taped some gauze pads over it and then stood back to admire her work.

"I could have been a nurse," she remarked.

"You would have made a fantastic nurse," he said. "Thank you."

Felicity blushed. "Any other glaring injuries?"

"Nothing that won't heal in time. Let's have a look at your scrapes and your side. I know it's still bothering you, I can tell in the way you're holding yourself."

"I should... uh. Change. Before you take a look."

Oliver blinked and then realized what she meant. She was wearing a dress and unless she pulled the whole thing up or took it off altogether, he wouldn't be able to see what the damage was. The thought of seeing that much of Felicity caused his blood to heat and he had to fight the arousal that threatened to pulse through him.

"Uh, yeah. Do you need any help?" he asked as she turned to leave the kitchen. Felicity whipped back to face him, shock on her face. Now it was his turn to blush. "I mean, with a zipper or anything?"

"Oh! Oh, no. Side-zip. Brilliant invention in female garments, let me tell you. I'll be right back," she promised. "Make yourself at home."

Oliver went to her refrigerator and peered inside. He saw some bottled water and retrieved two, opening one straight away and taking several gulps. The cold, fresh liquid felt like heaven on his dry throat. He set the other bottle aside for Felicity and poked around in the cabinets until he found a box of crackers. He dug in the box, shoving a small handful in his mouth. It'd been countless hours since he'd had a chance to eat anything and he was suddenly starving.

"I can fix us something if you're hungry," Felicity suddenly said at his elbow, startling him. He turned to see her standing there, pulled into a haphazard bun and dressed in a tank top and sleep shorts. She looked rumpled, comfortable, and so touchable his fingers itched. He set the cracker box down and tried not to look guilty.

Felicity chuckled as she patted his arm. "I'll fix us some eggs or something."

"Let me take a look at your injuries first," he said.

"I tried to get a look when I changed. It... stuck to my dress a bit," she admitted. Oliver lifted up the edge of her tank and sucked in air at the sight of the gash that marred her flank. It ran from the bottom of her ribcage down to just under the waistband of her shorts.

He directed her to sit in the chair, rolling down the waistband of the shorts and asking her to hold up the edge of her tank top. He repeated the process she'd done on him, cleaning the wound with a clean cloth and water before dabbing antiseptic over the gash. She cringed and a small whimper escaped, and Oliver felt like the worst heel in all the world.

"Sorry," he murmured, trying to gentle his fingers.

"It's okay."

The cut was long but not terribly deep. He decided it didn't need stitches and decided instead to use some butterfly bandages before covering the whole area with a larger patch of gauze to keep it dry and clean. Then, he insisted on cleaning her other cuts, including the gash on her shin, before letting her up.

Felicity smiled a little awkwardly at him before gesturing towards the stove. "I'll just go make us some eggs. Scrambled okay?"

He nodded. "Thanks."

They didn't talk much as she puttered around, whisking the eggs before pouring them into the hot skillet. Oliver just watched her, admiring the way she moved around in her own space. She hummed a little as she turned the eggs with a rubber spatula and he realized he felt at ease here, in her townhouse, with her. Emotion began to crowd him, filling his chest until he was afraid he might burst with it. He pressed his lips together, as though that could keep him silent.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" he asked, instead of saying what he really wanted to say. Felicity glanced up at him, smirking.

"It's just eggs, Oliver. I can handle it."

A moment later, she was setting a plate before him. She dumped some hot sauce, salt, and paper down on the table before returning with her own plate. They ate in companionable silence and while eggs were eggs, as far as Oliver was concerned, he thought that hers tasted especially good. And he was quite hungry too.

When he'd finished, he realized how tired he felt. Felicity looked exhausted too, as she stood to dump their plates in the sink.

"We need to talk," he told her, getting to his feet.

"I know," she replied before turning around. "But you look wrecked, Oliver. You need some sleep. And so do I."

"But-"

"We can talk tomorrow. I promise. I know you haven't slept in at least a day, if not more."

Oliver's shoulders slumped. She was right, of course. "There's no arguing with you, is there?" he grumbled.

Felicity flashed him a genuine smile and his heart squeezed. "Nope! Come on, you can crash in my guest room."

He followed her as she led him through her townhouse to the guest room he'd never seen before. The bed was smaller in there, but made up with a pretty coverlet and sheets. She handed him a few pillows from the linen closet and as well as a stack of towels for if he wanted to shower.

"I'm gonna go crash now," she told him. "Talk to you in the morning?"

She looked a little uncertain, chewing the edge of her lip. He smiled at her. "We will definitely be talking. Thanks for putting me up tonight, Felicity."

She smiled, relieved, and disappeared into her own room at the end of the hall. Oliver sighed as her door shut. Now wasn't there right time for their talk anyhow. Besides, a shower and bed sounded like heaven so he took the towels she'd given him and closed himself in the bathroom just next door to his room. As he shut the door, he wondered if she was doing the same in her bathroom that was attached to her room. The thought of Felicity standing under a steaming spray of water, letting the heat and pounding water soothe her aching muscles both excited him and soothed him.

Oliver didn't take long in the shower, the exhaustion quickly catching up with him. After he'd rinsed the soot and dust and sweat from his body, he stepped out and pulled his boxer briefs back on before creeping back to the guest room. There, he fell into the soft bed. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Thanks to EVERYONE for being so encouraging and enthusiastic about this story. All your reviews have meant the world to me. Big thanks also to lunarsilverwolfstar for being a fantastic beta. Your suggestions have made this better! **

Felicity woke the next morning, a little disoriented. It took a moment for the reality of what had happened the previous night to crash in on her. When it did, she sat bolt upright in bed. The twinge in her side proved her memory hadn't deceived her. She threw back her covers and padded into her adjoining bathroom to take care of business and wash her face.

She didn't dawdle, wanting to see Oliver, to make sure he was okay and not in pain or anything. Plus, she was anxious to have that talk that he'd promised. It was long past due. Her heart raced as she left her room. She paused by the guest room and tapped quietly on the door. There was no sound so she pushed the door, which was ajar, open a bit more so she could peek inside.

The bed was empty and made up neatly. He wasn't in there. The door to the other bathroom was open and she could see he wasn't in there either. Perhaps he was downstairs having some coffee or something. Felicity hurried down the stairs but could tell before she reached the bottom step that her home was empty. Oliver wasn't there.

Disappointment settled around her. She stepped into her kitchen to see a fresh pot of coffee had been brewed. Before her coffee maker sat a folded note with her name on it. She picked it up and read it.

Felicity,

I'm sorry to have to leave you a note but I didn't want to wake you to say goodbye. You need your rest. I have some things I need to get done today and I didn't want to be out on the streets in my suit in the daylight. I'm going home to make sure Thea is okay and check on some other things but I still want to have that talk with you. Will you be available later today? Can I come by? It's really important that we have this talk and I'm sorry to delay it even more but... I want to do this right.

Give me a call on my cell when you read this. I hope to see you later today. Thanks for taking care of me last night and giving me a place to crash. It means more than you know.

Oliver

Sighing, she set the note down before filling her favorite TARDIS mug with coffee. At least he hadn't run away; he still wanted to talk to her. She couldn't imagine what he wanted to get done first, but she could understand wanting to check on his sister. With Moira in jail, the teenage girl was all by herself and, after that terrible earthquake, being alone must be quite scary. She hoped Thea was okay.

Felicity finished her coffee and then went in search of her phone so she could call Oliver as he'd requested. She hoped against all possible hope that he wasn't trying to run.

—

Oliver hung up his cell phone, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He could tell Felicity had been nervous, waking up and not finding him there. He'd been quick to assure her that he wanted to see her later, but he had a few things to take care of. When he finally had the chance to sit down and talk with her, he didn't want anything else hanging over his head. Focusing on her was his priority.

The streets of Starling had been quiet and somber as he'd pushed his Ducati towards the Queen Mansion. It was a risk, going home wearing his leathers, but the Foundry wasn't a viable option at the moment and it was early enough that he knew he could escape a good deal of notice. And, frankly, with the state of chaos in the city at the moment, no one was likely to question too much his being on the streets.

At home, he'd quickly stolen inside to his room to take a shower and get into some clean clothes. Food was on his mind next and he'd padded down to the kitchen to fix himself some toast and coffee. He was just cleaning up the dishes from that when his phone had rung with the call from Felicity.

She'd sounded surprised when he'd asked if it was okay that he come over later. Still, he felt relieved when she assured him that she expected him there as soon as possible. He promised that he wouldn't take long. Even now, having just hung up with her, he was anxious to see her again. Anticipation thrummed through his veins. It reminded him a bit of how he used to feel the night before Christmas.

First things first, however. When he couldn't find Thea at the mansion, he called her cell. She picked up after a few rings and he exhaled a breath he hadn't even been aware he'd been holding.

"Thank god you're okay. Are you in Starling?" Oliver asked right away, not even bothering to say hello.

"Hi to you too, big brother," she quipped. "I'm safe. I'm over at Roy's place."

Roy Harper. Oliver clenched his jaw, picturing the young man. "That's in the Glades, right? Are you sure its safe?"

"Sure. He's on the west side. I just... didn't want to leave him last night," she explained.

Oliver supposed he could understand that. "Alright. Well, feel free to bring him here to the mansion if you need to or want to. I'll be... I'm going to be out at a friends'."

"Oh, really? What sort of friend? Is she pretty?" Thea asked, her voice teasing.

"Watch it, Speedy. I'll touch base with you tomorrow. Give me a call if you need anything," he told her.

"Will do."

When they hung up, he dialed up Tommy's cell phone. He needed to know how his friends were, if they were safe and unharmed. Oliver paced as he waited for his best friend to answer. Maybe he should have made sure last night that they were all right. Before he could put too much thought towards second guessing, Tommy answered.

"Hello?"

"Tommy! Thanks god. You're okay? Is Laurel okay?" Oliver exclaimed.

There was a chuckle. "We're fine. Thanks to you. She was right where you said she'd be, at CNRI trying to rescue files of all things."

Oliver heard an outraged cry in the background and smiled, knowing it was Laurel. "I'm glad you're both okay. I'm sorry I didn't check on you last night..."

"You had your hands full, I imagine." There was a small pause, and Oliver could hear some rustling. It sounded like Tommy was moving away from Laurel and, a second later he heard the soft sound of a door closing and then Tommy asked, hesitantly. "My father? What... happened?"

Oliver swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Tommy."

Another pause. "I understand. I mean, I know he wasn't thinking right. Oliver, the things he said to me when I confronted him. I had no idea that my father could be like that. I always knew he was a cold bastard but to want to murder half a city... Anyhow, I don't blame you."

"Are you sure? I know you haven't approved of what I do in the past..."

"I'm over that now, Ollie. After last night, I saw that you only do what you have to do and that you're doing it to save the city. It's a big job and, well, I'm proud of you for taking it on. I won't tell anyone, I promise. Not even Laurel."

"Are you two... how are you guys?" Oliver asked.

"Good. I got so insecure when I found out who you were and I was sure you wanted to get Laurel back and that she'd come running into your arms. I was a fool and she set me straight."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"How are you doing? Did you get hurt last night? Where'd you go?"

Oliver reached up to touch the bandage that still covered the wound in his chest. "I'll be alright. And I'll tell you more details soon, I promise. But I'm fine. For the first time since I've been home, I think I have a real chance to be happy."

"Real happy to hear that. Listen, I have to get back to Laurel. You take it easy okay?"

Oliver could hear the smile in Tommy's voice and couldn't help but smile back. "I definitely will. Say hi to her for me."

"I will. Oh! I almost forgot! Happy Birthday, big guy!"

Oliver felt a shock run through him. He'd completely forgotten it was his birthday today. God, it'd been years since he'd celebrated at all. Half the time, he hadn't even known what day it was anyhow. This year, though, this year was different.

"Hey, thanks."

"Maybe we'll get together for cake later. Gimme a call, okay?"

"Will do."

He hung up feeling... good. The weight on his shoulders was as light as it'd been in almost as long as he could remember. Before he could move forward with his plans, however, he had to make one more call.

Dig, as it turned out, was okay as well. He was at home in his apartment, resting and recuperating. It sounded as though he was alone and, though Oliver wanted to ask why Carly wasn't with him, tending his injuries and all of that, he didn't want to pry either. Dig told him how he'd gone down to CNRI like Oliver had asked and had found Tommy and Laurel standing in the street before the demolished building, looking shocked and relieved and very much safe. After that, he'd stopped by the foundry to check if Felicity and/or Oliver were still there, but they'd already left.

They talked briefly about getting things cleaned up and set to rights once more but agreed that it could wait a day or two. They all deserved a break. Dig asked about Felicity and Oliver gave him the condensed version, how she'd been trapped but he'd freed her and that she was okay. He knew his friend wanted to ask more questions but he refrained. Oliver knew that Dig felt protective towards Felicity and he was actually glad for it. She could use more people in her life that cared about her and their friendship had grown very organically out of her involvement with the team.

The team. Oliver took pride in knowing he had a team. He didn't know what the future held for all of them, whether he'd hang up his hood for good now or what. He supposed that was something to discuss with his partners. But Dig had been right. They all needed a few days off to recover, relax and just be. And Oliver knew exactly where he wanted to be right then.

Making a mental note to pack a little duffle back just in case, he set off for the Queen Mansion wine cellar.

—

It was after noon. Felicity was showered, dressed and had spent the last several hours cleaning her house as though she was getting ready to sell it. Even with the twinge in her side, she needed something to do to keep herself busy and her mind off of Oliver. If she stopped even for a minute, she would start wondering when he'd be coming back to her place and watching the door with a wistful expression. Couldn't have that.

So she kept herself busy, active. And her baseboards had never been cleaner. The shadows cast by the sun streaming through her living room windows grew longer and her hopes grew thinner. She honestly didn't think that Oliver would actively avoid her but given the events of last night, she absolutely believed he might have too much on his plate to worry about dealing with her today. Which was fine, she just wished he'd drop her a text and let her know.

Felicity had just stowed away the cleaning products and washed her hands when there was a knock at her front door. She paused, her hands still wrapped in the hand towel, and stared towards the door. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Was it Oliver? Who else could it be? Maybe Dig, come to check on her. No, it had to be Oliver.

She finished drying her hands on the front of her shorts as she hurried to the door. There was another knock as she neared and she called out, "Coming!"

She paused for just a moment, to gather her breath, before opening the door. Oliver stood on the doorstep and at first all she could see was his smile. Then, she noticed the bottle of wine.

"Is that-?"

"Lafite Rothschild? 1982? Yes, it is. I owed you," Oliver murmured, extending the bottle towards her. She accepted it reverently, fingers caressing over the label as she gaped.

"I thought you'd forgotten..." she said, trailing off. A lump was rising in her throat and she wasn't entirely sure it was because of the wine.

"May I come in?" he asked. Blushing a little, she stepped aside, opening the door wider and he entered. He took the bottle back and started for the kitchen. She followed along after him, feeling amazingly off balance.

"Of course I remembered," he said as he looked in her cabinets for a couple of wine glasses. Felicity went to the drawer where she kept her bottle opener and got that out for him. He set the glasses on the counter top and put the bottle down next to them. Then, he turned and met her eye. "I haven't forgotten anything, Felicity. Not since the moment I met you."

"Oliver," she breathed.

"And I was hoping you'd want to celebrate with me," he said.

Felicity blinked. "That we didn't die?"

"Well, that too. It's... erm. It's my birthday."

Her eyes widened. Oliver flushed a little, the pink high on his cheeks as he looked down to the wine bottle and used the opener she'd handed him to pull the cork.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" she cried. "I would have baked you a cake."

"Honestly? I didn't remember sooner."

She thought about all those years he'd spend on the island, isolated and alone and probably traumatized and in a fight for his own survival... A birthday would become something of very little consequence in those circumstances.

"Well, I'm glad I'm here to celebrate your first birthday back in the world with you," she told him. He smiled gratefully at her.

"C'mon. Let's let this wine breathe a little." He held a hand out to her and she took it. He led her into her living room and sat on the sofa, urging her to sit next to him.

"I've wanted to talk to you for a while, but with the Undertaking and all, there wasn't ever a good time. And then I wasn't even sure I would... well. Let's just say there were reasons."

"That's understandable, Oliver."

He turned a little to face her and he seemed uneasy, nervous. She reached out to place her hand over his, where it rested on the sofa cushion between them. He relaxed a little.

"After you joined the team, we had a talk. Do you remember? We were at Big Belly Burger and I told you that it was better that we not get involved."

She remembered all too well. She remembered the words she'd uttered that had felt too much like lies in her mouth.

"There was something I didn't realize at the time. Or maybe I did and I was just trying to run from it. Dig tried to warn me, I think. He knew before I did, as with most things."

Felicity had to smile at that. She might be the certified genius on the team but Dig knew all. She squeezed Oliver's hand under hers reassuringly.

"I know we don't talk about what happened when we first met, that night at the club and... here. But something happened that night. Felicity, it wasn't just a one night stand for me," he told her, earnestly.

A flash of weakness stole through her, her heart pounded almost painfully and she felt his hand turn over so it could clasp hers. She couldn't look away from him, from his eyes that were glued to hers.

"It wasn't for me either," she admitted softly.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you after that. Every time I came to see you at QC, I was just needing another moment with you. I think I hoped to convince myself that I'd imagined this connection to you but the more I saw you the more I knew you were under my skin." Oliver paused and took a deep breath. "I tried to move past it. I dated Helena and thought that if I was with someone new that I could move on. But I kept coming back to you, Felicity. Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know." She had a suspicion but she was so scared to speak it aloud, for fear that it might evaporate like a puddle under the sun.

"I think it means I'm falling in love with you, Felicity," he told her, his voice raspy.

Her breath left her in a whoosh and she knew her eyes must be as wide as saucers as she stared at Oliver. His cheeks were slightly pink and his eyes were soft but watchful. She'd seen this man lie more times than she could count and quite a few of those times were directly to her face. Never once had she failed to see through his bullshit and she liked to think that she could read him well enough to detect when he was lying.

Felicity saw no lie in his eyes. More than that, the rightness of what he'd just said wrapped around her like a warm blanket. It settled into the cracks of her soul and filled her with affirmation. Oliver was falling in love with her. That was truth. She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.

"Wow," she breathed. "You think you're falling in love with me?"

He nodded and a smile teased at the corners of his mouth.

"I've got you beat," she told him. "Because I am in love with you, Oliver Queen."

Now his eyes widened and she thought that maybe she'd scared him when he suddenly reached up to cup the back of her head. His lips brushed hers before settling in and Felicity's hands flew up to grip his shoulders. He wound his arms around her, his palms hot on her back, fingers digging in through the thin material of her shirt. He pulled back a little, sipped at her lips, before settling back in. This time, the kiss deepened almost instantly and her head began to spin as his tongue caressed the seam of her lips, begging entrance.

Felicity opened for him and his tongue plunged into her mouth right away, followed by a deep groan that she felt rumble through him. It wasn't until she felt his hands drift down to grab her hips and then palm her ass that she realized he'd moved her. She was now straddling his lap and he was pressing her down towards his groin, where she could feel him already growing hard.

She tore her lips from his so she could groan at the sensation of him rubbing against the seam of her shorts. Oliver moved his attentions down to her neck, pressing sucking kisses along the column of her throat until he found that one spot under her ear that made her whimper.

"Oliver," she gasped.

He released her and met her eye. His blue eyes were dark and heavy lidded. The knowledge that this man, this amazing man, wanted her made her this much made her feel a little dizzy.

"You feel amazing," he told her, pressing little kisses to her jawline. "I want you."

"I want you too," she admitted, pressing her lips to his and indulging them both for a long moment. She pulled back, reluctantly. "But we need to eat."

Oliver growled. "We can eat later." His large hands squeezed her ass to punctuate his point.

Her blood was pounding and she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. All those weeks of denying her desires had built up and she felt ready to explode. But Felicity was a practical girl and her practical side won out, as it always seemed to.

She pushed off his lap, causing him to groan in protest. "We need to have some dinner first," she told him in a chastising tone. She held out a hand to help him off the sofa. He took her hand in his, his large, warm fingers curling around hers as he stood before her.

"You're just trying to heighten the anticipation," he growled.

"Maybe," she said, feeling cagey. "But mostly I think we're both going to need our strength tonight."

Oliver's eyes positively glowed as he followed her into the kitchen. "That sounds promising."

"It's your birthday, remember? I'm duty bound to give you the full experience. Food, wine, a little action..."

"Only a little?" His eyebrow shot up.

"Well," she drawled as she opened her freezer to look for something to fix, "we'll see how it goes."

The promise lay heavy in her voice and Oliver's eyes twinkled as he grinned at her. Felicity then shifted her attention towards finding something quick and easy to fix. Getting to the main course was quickly becoming a priority.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Soooo yeah this chapter is pretty much smut. If you aren't interested in smut just content yourself that they spent the night together and it was lovely and there's such promise for both their futures, blah blah blah.**

**THANK YOU to lunarsilverwolfstar for her beta work on this. She assures me this chapter isn't nearly as terrible as I think it is.**

**And THANK YOU to all my fine readers. Your comments/reviews/favorites/kudos and ongoing interest in this story have really kept me going. Bless your patience and I hope you've enjoyed this. Thanks for reading!**

Dinner was good, not that he hadn't expected it to be, but he knew Felicity had chosen something quick to prepare and his expectations hadn't been very high. Plus, his focus was more on dessert. But the quick pasta stir fry she'd whipped up tasted as good as anything he could have ordered in a restaurant. And while he'd helped her by chopping the vegetables, she'd mixed up a quick batch of cupcakes for them have after the meal. He'd protested her efforts at first, but she'd insisted, telling him that everyone deserved cake on their birthday.

He was still sipping the wine from dinner, that infamous 1982 Lafite Rothschild, when Felicity brought out a cupcake with a candle stuck into the frosting. Oliver chuckled and sat back, enjoying the happy smile on her face. Then, she began to sing to him. It was just the standard, old birthday song but the way she sang it, it was as though he'd never heard it before. He'd heard her humming along to music a few times but he'd never really heard her sing and, god help him, she had the voice of an angel.

When she finished singing, she placed the cupcake in front of him and he paused, thinking of a wish. The perfect one came to mind and he closed his eyes, concentrating on that wish as he blew the single candle out.

Felicity then pulled it out of the cupcake and peeled back the wrapper from one side, presenting it to him for a bite. "What did you wish for?"

"Can't tell you or it won't come true," he murmured before taking a bite. Then he took the cupcake from her hand and returned the favor. He watched closely as she took a little bite. Some frosting smeared on her lip.

Oliver set the cupcake aside and reached up, curving his fingers over the back of her neck and pulling her down to him. He licked at her lip, catching the frosting on his tongue before kissing her long and deep.

"Thank you," he said softly as he released her.

Felicity blushed a little. "You're welcome." She straightened and held out her hand. He took it immediately and got to his feet. "How can I make your wish come true if you don't tell me what it was?" she asked him.

"Hmm, maybe I'll tell you part of it," he said. Felicity smiled at him expectantly as she backed towards the hallway he knew led to her bedroom, his hand still in hers. He followed her lead, happily.

They paused just outside her bedroom door. Felicity leaned against the frame and he stepped up to her, crowding her space and pressing his body into hers. She looked up at him, relaxed and happy.

"I wish for you to give me a chance," he told her. He brushed his lips against hers, just the barest touch. "I'd like a relationship with you, Felicity Meghan Smoak."

He swallowed her gasp as he kissed her again and, god, he could spend the rest of his life kissing her. Maybe he would, he decided as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed her against him. When he pulled back, he noticed with pride the way she leaned even more heavily against the doorframe.

"I can probably help you make that come true," she replied.

—

Oliver took Felicity's hand and led her into the bedroom, keeping his eyes on hers. There was nothing to stop him tonight. No calls from Thea, she was busy with Roy and wouldn't even think to notice he wasn't at home since she wasn't at home herself. No vigilante business either as the only thing happening in Starling City right now was cleanup from the aftermath of the Glades quake and the SCPD had that more than covered. Dig was recovering at home; Tommy and Laurel were together somewhere and hopefully every bit as happy as he was right this moment.

It all added up to this night being for him and Felicity, no one else.

At the side of her, bed he stopped and let go of her hand. She watched him closely and seemed to understand what he wanted her to do. She reached for the hem of her shirt and drew it up over her head, leaving her in a bra and her shorts. She dropped the shirt and Oliver's eyes were drawn to the skin she'd revealed. He'd seen her before, of course, but he was starting to wonder if he hadn't properly appreciated it at the time.

Her skin was so smooth, so silky and pale, and damn near luminescent. Felicity had gentle curves, ones that begged for the touch of his hand. There was the soft roundness of her breasts, the subtle flare of her hips and the gentle curve of her belly. Oliver ached to taste and touch and experience all of her and took a deep breath to calm himself. All in good time.

He made sure she knew he was looking at her, admiring her. His lips quirked when he noticed her shift her stance slightly, betraying her discomfort. That was good; he wanted her a bit off balance. Tonight, he wanted to call the shots.

"So beautiful," he murmured, reaching out to stroke a finger down the soft skin of her flank. "Now, your shorts."

Oliver watched as her throat worked. There was a tremble in her fingers as she reached for the button and fly of her shorts and opened them. He nodded his encouragement and kept watching as she pushed the white denim down her shapely legs until they landed in a pool at her feet. She stepped out of the fabric and kicked it aside to join her discarded shirt. She also drew the ponytail holder from her hair, letting the soft blonde waves cascade over her shoulders.

Now, Felicity stood before him in her simple cotton bra and a pair of underwear covered in little red hearts that were both somehow impossibly sweet and achingly sexy. Oliver's mouth watered.

"Lay on the bed," he commanded, his voice rougher than he'd intended. He saw Felicity's eyes widen slightly but she did as he requested, settling in the middle of the bed with her hair spread over the pillows. He admired her for a moment before pulling his own shirt off and toeing out of his shoes. He left his jeans on as he knelt on the edge of the bed and touched a hand to her knee. God, her skin was so soft.

"Roll over."

She complied instantly, bringing her hands down and resting her cheek on them. Oliver leaned up and unsnapped the fastener on her bra. He smoothed his hand down the warm, bare skin there before helping her remove the undergarment entirely. She returned to her position and Oliver began to rub at the soft expanse of her back, feeling her muscles give under the pressure of his fingers.

Felicity groaned. "That feels amazing. Did you take a class or something?"

He chuckled and didn't answer. He kept up his massage until Felicity all but melted into the mattress.

"Are you still with me?" he asked softly, settling back on the bed.

"Mmm..." Her eyes were closed and a sleepy smile graced her lips. She didn't move a muscle.

"I guess I'll just have to rouse you, then," he murmured. He coasted his hands down her back, caressing her hips before smoothing over the curve of her ass. His fingertips teased under the bottom edge of her underwear, touching the warm skin there. Felicity shifted a little, another content sigh leaving her lips.

Oliver continued to touch her, exploring her and trying to calm his own blood which was thundering through his veins. He was not going to rush this. He had plans, dammit. Still, even he knew when to admit that it was time to move forward.

Grabbing the waistband of her underwear, Oliver began to draw them down over her hips, exposing her smooth, delectable ass. His eyes fixed on her as he drew the garment down her legs and finally off over feet.

"Felicity..." he breathed.

"Mmm?"

"Turn over."

She was more awake than she appeared to be. A moment later, she rolled over and lay there, looking up at him with her big, blue eyes. Oliver kept her gaze as he shifted, moving down the bed. He nudged her legs apart and settled between them, running his fingers lightly up from her ankles to her thighs, enjoying the way she shivered and her eyes darkened. He maneuvered into position, using his shoulders to keep her thighs apart as he zeroed in on the tender flesh at her apex. He glanced up again at her and saw she was still watching him intently.

"I do believe I owe you a little reciprocation," he told her. He left out the part where he'd imagined doing this to her nearly every day ever since that night she'd taken him in her mouth and given him the best blow job of his life.

"Do your worst," she said breathlessly.

Oliver quirked an eyebrow. "You better hold onto something, sweetness."

She began to reply but before the words could form, Oliver descended on her. He licked her entire slit, gathering her taste and savoring her flavor. God, she tasted good. He'd known she would. Using the tip of his tongue, he sought out the little bundle of nerves hiding just above her sheath. He teased it out of its hood and had to use one of his hands to hold her hips down to the mattress when she jerked.

Christ, the sounds she was making! He'd never heard Felicity sound so breathy, so completely undone. It was the best thing he'd ever heard in his life, he was sure of it. He redoubled his efforts, hoping to hear more. He grazed her with his teeth, used his lips and tongue and the fingers of his other hand to stroke around her entrance which was already clenching for him.

"Oliver!" she cried and he glanced up to see her back bowing, her breasts arching towards the ceiling, her hands fisting the comforter. Fuck, that was beautiful.

He refocused, now thrusting his tongue into her silken heat while his thumb rubbed in time on her clit. He could feel her thighs on his shoulders quivering and knew she was close. He wanted, no, needed to see her fly apart for him. Oliver hummed, adding some vibrations to what his lips and tongue were doing. Then, he quickly switched places with his thumb and mouth. He pressed his thumb inside her, pressing down as he took her clit between his lips and gave a powerful suck.

On a loud cry, Felicity shattered beneath him. And she kept crying out as he continued sucking at her, drawing out her orgasm. He lifted his head so he could watch her as she rode out the shockwaves, his thumb still pumping inside of her. She was flushed clear down her chest and her mouth was open, her eyes squeezed shut. He wanted to remember that sight for the rest of his life.

Finally, she relaxed and her eyes opened, met his. She looked stunned but satisfied.

"Wow."

Oliver smiled. "You're welcome."

She smirked, even as she was trying to catch her breath. "Pretty proud of yourself, aren't you?"

"I made you come," he said with a shrug, unable to keep the grin from his face. He moved up her body, dropping a relatively chaste kiss onto her lips.

She pushed at his chest and he was confused until her hands moved to his belt. "Yes, you did," she agreed. "But the real challenge is if you'll be able to manage it again."

Oliver snorted as she worked his pants open and started to shove them over his hips. "That's not a challenge at all," he informed her. He sat back and quickly shucked his jeans and boxer briefs, throwing them to the floor before settling back over her. This time, he kissed her long and deep, letting her taste herself on his tongue.

Felicity groaned into his mouth, stroking his tongue with her own. Their lips fit together so well that Oliver wondered why he'd wasted so many months since he'd been home trying to run from this woman. Right now, his body covering hers, skin against skin, he felt more home than he had since before the damned island.

Eventually, he realized his needs could be denied no longer. He was so hard that he figured he could pound nails, and each rub of his flesh against the softness of Felicity's stomach only ratcheted up his desire. Pulling his lips from hers, he gasped. "Condom?"

"There," she replied, panting. Her arm stretched towards the bedside table and Oliver leaned over to open the drawer. Inside, he saw a neat little strip of condoms, folded up. Waiting. He tore one off and returned his attention to her. "Were you expecting me, Felicity?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She grinned back, looking a little devilish. "I was hoping. I did a quick run to the shop on the corner this afternoon and picked them up."

"I like a girl who's prepared," he murmured, kissing her again lightly. Then, he sat back and quickly tore open the packet before sheathing himself.

He moved over her again, feeling her slit to test her readiness. Felicity made a needy sound and her hips rose to meet his hand. "No more teasing," she groaned. "I need you, Oliver."

He couldn't agree more. He'd never needed someone more in his life and it wasn't just about the sex. Felicity filled a hole inside of him that he hadn't even realized was there until he met her. Reaching down, he took ahold of himself and guided the head of his cock between her folds. With one surge of his hips, he filled her. Felicity moaned, her legs tightening around his hips and her fingers digging into his back. Oliver let his head fall forward to rest against her neck while he struggled to calm himself.

Every instinct inside of him urged him to let loose and pound into her, to take his pleasure and possess her completely. He couldn't do that to Felicity. She deserved all the tenderness he could manage. This woman had stuck with him through the worst of it and she hadn't so much as flinched. She loved him; damaged, dark, and quite possibly ruined, she loved him anyhow. She deserved everything he could give her and more. He would damn well start with worshiping her tonight.

Gradually, he felt her inner walls relax as her body adjusted and accepted him. The tight, nearly painful vice was replaced with a silken, molten hot softness that gripped his cock in the best way possible. He pulled back a little, letting his flesh drag against hers before thrusting back inside.

Felicity moaned and grabbed at him, her hips tilting towards his. Oliver kept up the slow penetration, savoring every glide and every sensation. There was no need for rough or clumsy action. He was already possessing her fully tonight; it didn't even feel like sex. It felt like coming home. He wanted to speak, to tell her how he felt and how she made him feel and all the thoughts that were swirling around in his head but the words escaped him. He was surrounded and undone by her and, for the first time, he wasn't afraid of the feelings she invoked.

"Faster," she groaned. She grabbed at his ass, trying to compel him and Oliver smirked at her neediness.

"Impatient?" he asked, almost surprised at the throaty quality of his own voice. He stilled his hips and grabbed her hands, drawing them up over her head. He shifted so he could grab both wrists with one hand and hold her securely. Once he accomplished that, he leaned on his other elbow and resumed his leisure strokes. Felicity huffed, even as her cheeks flushed bright red.

"Oliver," she whined, her hips shifting restlessly, trying to change his momentum. He swallowed a chuckle and enjoyed watching her frustration more than he thought he would.

He added a swivel to his hips on his next plunge that had her gasping and struggling to free her wrists. Her walls clenched convulsively around his cock and he had to bite back a curse. Fuck, that felt good. So, of course, he did it again.

Oliver's control was fraying. He could feel the sensations building, the heat building and the nerves growing ever more sensitive. His eyes drifted to hers, appreciating the hazy lust he saw there, the flush on her cheeks that crept down her throat, the way her lush lips were parted.

"Let go, Oliver," she murmured, arching her back so her breasts came into greater contact with his chest. "Show me what you've got."

With a growl, he did just that. The time for taunting and testing and tasting and savoring was past and, with her permission, he let loose the beast within. He quickened his rhythm, thrusting into her and enjoying the sounds of their flesh impacting as it echoed through the room. Felicity moaned and her walls began to flutter around his plunging length.

Oliver released her hands and, immediately, she grabbed his shoulders. "That's it, god, you're so gorgeous. Come for me, Felicity. Let me see you," he urged her.

She cried out as she did just that. Her voice was strained but he heard his name called out and he experienced a strong wave of possessiveness. Her orgasm, the sounds she made because of him, the way she clung to him, they were all his. She was his. As her muscles clamped down on him, Oliver let go as well, letting the pleasure of his orgasm crash through him and into her.

He growled, burying his face into her neck as her name slipped past his lips. They held each other, breathing hard and he let her scent and softness swamp him while he slowly regained his senses.

Once it felt like his muscles had re-solidified, he pushed off of her, collapsing onto the bed next to her. Instantly, she turned to him, resting her head on his shoulder as she snuggled up to his side. He wrapped his arm around her soft, warm body, keeping her close.

"Oliver, I-" Felicity began softly.

He angled his head so he could kiss the top of hers, breathing in the scent of her floral shampoo as he did so. "Shh. Just sleep for now," he urged.

With a sigh, she snuggled against him as Oliver drifted off, more content than he'd been in a long time.

—

Felicity woke to the sun peeking through her bedroom curtains. She was curled around Oliver, his skin warm and firm underneath her cheek. She took a deep breath; he smelled fantastic, even after a night full of passion. Perhaps that was especially after a night full of passion.

Neither of them had gotten much sleep. Each hour, she'd woken up either to his hands and mouth on her or she'd woken him the same way. She'd even done a few things with him that she'd never done before. With Oliver, her fears and uncertainties didn't seem to matter. He made her feel safe, beautiful, desirable and loved.

And he'd stayed. Not that she'd really doubted he would; he had to be exhausted after their busy night together, but she'd never woken up with him there before. She wiggled until she could prop up on her elbow and watch him. The sun played over his face, and he looked so young and untouched when he slept. The burdens that usually weighed on him were gone and he just looked... happy.

Unable to resist, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his jaw line, appreciating the roughness of his stubble against her lips. He murmured and shifted, turning towards her unconsciously. Delighted with that response, she decided to up the ante. Felicity pushed up and pressed her lips to his. A moment later, his lips softened under hers and she felt a hand cup the back of her head. He kissed her back with dawning arousal.

Felicity pulled back so she could meet his eyes. "Good morning."

"Good morning," he replied. He pecked her lips. "You are the best sight I've woken up to in too long."

"Mmm..." She had to agree as she let her fingers glide through the short cropped hair at the top of his head.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Not sure. Judging by the sun, I think it's probably close to noon."

"Wow. You wore me out last night," he teased.

"It was mutual," she reminded him.

"I think we've missed breakfast."

"Looks like."

He kissed her again, his tongue teasing hers. Felicity was just getting into it when he drew away. "I suggest we forage for food and spend the rest of the day in bed."

"Throw a shower in there..."

"...Together?"

She grinned. "Sure, why not?"

There was surely more for them to deal with. Oliver wasn't an easy man to be with and she knew she wasn't exactly a picnic either. But as Oliver pulled the covers back and got to his feet, holding out a hand so she could join him, Felicity found she was excited to journey down this path with him. And as Oliver soaped her up, spending an inordinate amount of time on her rear end, she knew she was excited about a great many things when it came to this man.


End file.
